Georgia family files $1 billion lawsuit over Kendrick Johnson's death, accusing him of cover-up

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The family of Kendrick Johnson, the 17-year-old high school student who was found dead on a rolled-up wrestling mat at his high school in 2013, has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the Lowndes County Sheriff's Department. On Tuesday, the Johnson family announced it would take legal action against the GBI for falsifying the circumstances of the teenager's death.

After a second local investigation into Kendrick Johnson's death was officially closed without any charges or arrests, nearly ten years after his body was discovered curled up on a gym mat, it was concluded that his death was a bizarre accident.

Johnson's parents, however, have long insisted that someone killed their son and that school administrators and police covered up the crime.

“They killed the wrong child, but they killed the right parents because we will continue to fight for Kendrick,” Jackie, Johnson's mother, said in a statement.

Johnson's body was found in southern Georgia on January 11. Investigators with the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office said he died in a bizarre accident. He fell headfirst onto a mat and became trapped inside.

The chief medical examiner of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation stated at the time that the death was an accident.

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“We had no confidence in Lowndes County,” Kendrick's father, Kenneth Johnson, said in an interview. “We knew from the beginning what the outcome would be.”

The Johnsons claim, among other things, that their son's body was “dismembered” and “mutilated” during an autopsy performed by a Georgia Bureau of Investigators medical examiner.

The Justice Department eventually closed its investigation into Johnson's death.

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