VALDOSTA — The parents of Kendrick “KJ” Johnson have been dealt another legal setback: a Superior Court judge denied their petition for a coroner’s inquest into their son’s death.

In orders filed this week, Senior Judge Joe Bishop denied the request by Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson to force former coroner Wilbur “Bill” Watson and current Lowndes County Coroner Austin Fiveash to hold an inquest — essentially a public hearing similar to a trial.

Kendrick Johnson was a Lowndes High School student who died in 2013. His body was found upside-down in a vertically stored gym mat at Lowndes High School in January 2013. Officials ruled the death an accident, but the Johnson family has long claimed foul play.

They have filed multiple lawsuits against dozens of defendants through the years, winning none of them. Their most recent federal lawsuit was dismissed earlier this week.

Watson was the county coroner at the time of KJ’s death, retiring in 2016, the same year Fiveash won election to the post.

In one ruling Monday, June 29, Bishop dismissed Watson from the case, saying that as he is no longer coroner he had no authority to represent the coroner’s office and “is not a proper party to this lawsuit.”

Regarding actions against Fiveash, a separate ruling also filed Monday, June 29,  stated the request for a coroner’s inquest was just a refiling of a previous petition which was dismissed for failure to prosecute under Georgia’s five-year rule.

Georgia’s legal code states “Any action or other proceeding filed in any of the courts of this state in which no written order is taken for a period of five years shall automatically stand dismissed with costs to be taxed against the party plaintiff.”

Bishop’s ruling states the Johnsons’ claims as to the cause of their son’s death were found in an earlier lawsuit to be “substantially frivolous, substantially groundless and substantially vexatious … Those claims are essentially the same as the claims in this case.” 

A judgment against the Johnsons in the earlier lawsuit blocks the later request for a coroner’s inquest, according to the ruling.

Bishop stated that then-coroner Watson determined that no foul play was involved and filed a proper death certificate.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.