VALDOSTA – The family of Kendrick Johnson has been ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses associated with lawsuits they filed accusing multiple individuals of causing and covering up Johnson’s death, reported Valdosta Today’s Adam Floyd. 

“On Tuesday, Superior Court Senior Judge Richard Porter entered an order awarding attorney’s fees and expenses of $292,102 to attorneys representing the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, the Lowndes County Board of Education, the City of Valdosta, Steve Owens Transportation and the family of Brian and Branden Bell, according to court documents,” Floyd reported. 

The body of Kendrick Johnson was found upside down in a vertically-stored gym mat at Lowndes High School in January 2013. A state autopsy ruled the 17-year-old’s death accidental. The Johnson family insists their son died of foul play.

Floyd, a former Valdosta Daily Times criminal justice reporter who has written extensively about the Kendrick Johson case, explained in the report, “Johnson’s parents filed a $100 million civil suit in January 2015, which alleged former local FBI agent Rick Bell, his two sons and 35 state and local officials either directly caused or covered up the cause of their son’s death. The family later voluntarily dropped the suit. In Tuesday’s filing, Judge Porter noted the Johnsons’ claims were ‘substantially frivolous, substantially groundless, or substantially vexatious. Further, the Court specifically concludes that Plaintiffs claiming that the Bells killed Johnson and that these Defendants conspired to conceal the cause and manner of death lacked substantial justification for the reason that such actions were substantially groundless as they admitted in their depositions.’”

Floyd shared a statement from Jim Elliott, attorney representing the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, following concerning the ruling: “For over four and one-half years, the Johnsons and their lawyer have been falsely accusing the Bell family of having been involved in the tragic, accidental death of Kendrick Johnson. And they have been falsely accusing educators, law enforcement officers and others of engaging in a non-existent cover up. Judge Porter has now put those false accusations to rest and determined that the Johnsons’ and their lawyer’s accusations were substantially frivolous, groundless and vexatious. And for their misconduct, the Court has ordered the Johnsons and their lawyer to pay the attorneys’ fees and expenses of those whom they have falsely accused. All of those who have been falsely accused have been vindicated. Truth prevails. Justice has been done.”

In July, the Johnsons repeated their claims of a mass conspiracy in a separate federal suit which is pending.

This report was shared with permission. Adam Floyd can be reached at afloyd@blackcrow.fm.