Page 24 of 46 FirstFirst ... 14 22 23 24 25 26 34 ... LastLast
Results 576 to 600 of 1132

Thread: Kendrick Johnson (17) Dies after getting trapped in gym mats

  1. #576
    Senior Member *crickets*'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    SW VA
    Posts
    3,179
    Rep Power
    21474851
    Hmmm...maybe not an "accident" after all?
    #neverboughtthataccidentcrap


    By Christian Boone - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    
    Despite seemingly ironclad alibis, two teen sons of an FBI agent remain part of the focus of the federal probe into the January 2013 death of a Valdosta high school student found dead inside a rolled-up gym mat.

    Michael Moore, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, has said little beyond his initial pronouncement on Halloween 2013 "that a sufficient basis exists for my office to conduct a formal review of the facts and investigation surrounding the death of Kendrick Johnson."

    Letters he sent to the brothers in February informing them they were "target(s) of the grand jury's investigation" into Johnson's death indicate Moore is skeptical about the official finding that the 17-year-old's death was accidental. A "target" is a person "to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant," according to the United States Attorneys' Manual.

    The boys' father, FBI agent Rick Bell, also received a target letter, alleging possible civil rights violations. It's not known whether target letters were sent to anyone else.

    "This is a witch hunt," said the boys' mother, Karen Bell. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not naming the brothers because they were juveniles at the time of the alleged incident. "The only reason our sons are being attacked is because their dad is an FBI agent. It fits into their claim that this is a conspiracy."

    Moore declined comment, but the AJC has learned that, as recently as four weeks ago, witnesses were still being questioned about the brothers' possible involvement.

    http://www.myajc.com/news/news/crime...t-death/nhzyH/
    FBI mom says it's a witch hunt cause their dad is FBI. Why would the GA State Atty. be on a witch hunt for an FBI agent and his kids? Makes no sense to me.
    Last edited by *crickets*; 11-07-2014 at 07:23 AM.

  2. #577
    Senior Member TupeloHoney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    ATL
    Posts
    2,927
    Rep Power
    21474850
    Quote Originally Posted by *crickets* View Post
    Hmmm...maybe not an "accident" after all?
    #neverboughtthataccidentcrap



    FBI mom says it's a witch hunt cause their dad is FBI. Why would the GA State Atty. be on a witch hunt for an FBI agent and his kids? Makes no sense to me.


    So does that mean you think the Bell brothers got somebody else to kill KJ?


    From the same article:

    Kennedy Cowart appeared before the grand jury Oct. 10 where, according to her mother, she was asked whether she had any information that might clear her boyfriend --one of the teenage brothers. Among the questions posed to her daughter, said Kim Cowart: "Wouldn't you want to know if your boyfriend is a murderer?"

    "She knows he didn't have anything to do with it, but it was clear they didn't believe her," Kim Cowart said.

    Johnson died sometime between the afternoon of Jan. 10 and the morning of Jan. 11. He was last seen entering the gym on a school surveillance camera. Before that, on the morning of Jan. 10, Kennedy's boyfriend traveled with the Lowndes wrestling team to a tournament in Macon, 152 miles away. The wrestling team remained in Macon overnight and was still competing there when Johnson's body was found the following day.

    "Are they claiming (he) hijacked the bus and drove back to Valdosta and killed K.J.?" said Karen Bell, adding that her son shared a motel room that night with two teammates.

    Meanwhile, the younger brother -- whose 2011 scuffle with Johnson on a school bus prompted suspicions he was involved in the death -- was in class and accounted for when Johnson was seen entering the gym.

    "Our attorney and investigator walked the school of 40-plus cameras and picked out 12 cameras that caught (the younger brother) on camera and at no time was he in the old gym or old gym hallway on January 10th," Karen Bell said. "My worry is that exculpable material has not been presented to the grand jury. They're presenting one side."

    Lowndes County Sheriff's Dept. Lt. Stryde Jones told the AJC last year that the brothers were never considered suspects.

    "We pulled the class attendance records," he said. "One of the brothers had checked out prior to Kendrick entering the gym (where he was found dead) for a state wrestling tournament. The other brother was in his class, was not tardy. And then we checked the video of the gym and we don't see him anywhere around the gym area."
    http://www.myajc.com/news/news/crime...t-death/nhzyH/
    Quote Originally Posted by Not your business View Post
    I will out think the fucking pants off of you and you would thank me for helping you out of them.

  3. #578
    Junior Member GrimWeeper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Delaware
    Posts
    12
    Rep Power
    0
    Just read this whole thread in one sitting... cray cray

  4. #579
    Senior Member TupeloHoney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    ATL
    Posts
    2,927
    Rep Power
    21474850
    Quote Originally Posted by GrimWeeper View Post
    Just read this whole thread in one sitting... cray cray
    So ... whaddaya think happened?
    Quote Originally Posted by Not your business View Post
    I will out think the fucking pants off of you and you would thank me for helping you out of them.

  5. #580
    Junior Member GrimWeeper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Delaware
    Posts
    12
    Rep Power
    0
    Quote Originally Posted by TupeloHoney View Post
    So ... whaddaya think happened?
    At first I thought it was most likely an accident of some sort. I read the debates re: the state of the body (specifically facial structure) after being exhumed and didn't really take that fully into account because I'm not an expert in the field. I haven't seen any faces that have decomposed before this to know what's normal and what's not (trauma vs decomposition) and it sounds as though that can be debated / argued among professionals in the field via the differing opinions of the medical examiners (assuming the first is not part of a conspiracy). The more inconsistencies that arose the more suspicious it has become and it does make you wonder.

    I really don't like what the forensic expert for CNN said about the camera footage and how parts were missing. The crime scene stuff is hard to judge whether it is some conspiracy vs incompetence; however, it looks like this footage should be there if the rest of it is. It's real shady that all footage for the cameras was unavailable.

    *NOTE: THANK YOU AUTO-SAVE, hit back and almost lost what I had wrote. <--- ass = autosave (needed a reason to use this emoticon ... LOL at all the choices)**

    I guess my question is whether the blunt force trauma they found to his neck would be possible by somehow falling straight down through the mat and impacting the gym floor.

    I wouldn't be surprised with either outcome, to be honest. Though I do think I've changed my position and am going with something more than just an accident. My main reason for that is the strong interest of the feds; I think they (grand jury) would have been quick to close the case without charges if they felt that the trauma found in the medical examination was even slightly more likely to be caused by an accident versus homicide (therefore, I figure the answer to my above question is probably no). It's not like the feds pick up every single investigation, I imagine they're fairly picky, so to put this much time and effort into it is probably for good reason.

    Very interested to follow this and see what comes of it... tonight was the first time I stumbled upon this particular case.

  6. #581
    Senior Member *crickets*'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    SW VA
    Posts
    3,179
    Rep Power
    21474851
    Well, it seems big bro's 'airtight alibi' (was on the bus to Macon when KJ was last seen) is not so airtight after all -->


    Nov 18, 2014 11:14 AM

    VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) -- With their attorney Chevene King, Jackie and Kenneth Johnson appeared at a morning conference in Valdosta Tuesday.

    The Johnsons said they had learned the school's wrestling team had not left campus for a tournament the morning their son went missing, as previously thought.

    The parents say that school officials excused 25 Lowndes High students from class approximately four and a half hours before the chartered bus left the school parking lot headed to Macon.

    King showed a copy of an attendance record showing that Lowndes High officials released the athletes and others from class starting at approximately 11:30 a.m. on January 10, 2013.

    He also referenced a school bus travel log that confirmed 4 p.m. as the departure time of bus driver William P. White, 66, who drove wrestling team coach Spencer Graybeal, his wife, Jennifer, a Lowndes High teacher, two other adults and the 25 students on the trip to Macon.

    The document was secured from the school board under the Open Records Act, and suggests that the group left nearly three hours after Kendrick Johnson was last seen on school surveillance video at 1:09 p.m. His body was found the next morning.

    http://m.walb.com/walb/db_348418/con...tguid=75QcDW42

  7. #582
    Senior Member Queena's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Illinois but the Southern part, which kind of sucks
    Posts
    2,490
    Rep Power
    21474849
    Hmmm I don't know what to think. I thought that the FBI closed their case already. I thought only the parents were looking into this. Just knowing that years later, officials are still looking into this makes me wonder.

  8. #583
    Senior Member *crickets*'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    SW VA
    Posts
    3,179
    Rep Power
    21474851
    Quote Originally Posted by Queena View Post
    Hmmm I don't know what to think. I thought that the FBI closed their case already. I thought only the parents were looking into this. Just knowing that years later, officials are still looking into this makes me wonder.
    It's the DOJ via US Attorney Michael Moore that has been investigating this, for just over a year now. A grand jury was convened and FBI guy and his sons were formally notified that they were a target of the investigation. The FBI has been assisting in the investigation.

    Accident? Don't think so...

  9. #584
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Probably South Of You
    Posts
    11,256
    Rep Power
    21474859
    The bus log certainly raises questions. It also means all those completely unambiguous statements that the older kid had a 100% alibi for his entire day were deliberately misleading. I totally believed them, it was the younger one's alibi that I thought might be a little shaky.

    What a stupid thing to do, even if he genuinely wasn't involved, they've ruined their credibility & made him look really suspect.

  10. #585
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Probably South Of You
    Posts
    11,256
    Rep Power
    21474859
    This says it's coming from the parents, not the DOJ investigation? They're still insisting the whole team went on the bus & left before 1pm, they'd be crazy to lie, surely? This was a tournament, a missing or late school team would be noticed. Why would their competitors & the audience cover for them? (unless some of the boys travelled in their own vehicle & their team's covering for them)


    http://globalgrind.com/2014/11/20/su...-johnson-case/
    According to WCTV, Chevene B. King Jr., the lawyer for*Kendrick Johnson‘s*family has brought up key evidence on two brothers, one who is on the Lowndes High School wrestling team and their connection to the late teen. King believes the teens had something to do with the death of Kendrick Johnson.

    Kendrick Johnson was found dead rolled up in a gym mat in January 2013. Speculation has surrounded the teen’s death after officials claim it was an accident while his parents insist foul play was involved.
    The teenagers in question are now 18-year-old Brandon Bell and his younger brother, whose name hasn’t been released due to his age. Their father, FBI agent Rick Bell,*instructed them not to talk to the police. On the day of the Kendrick’s disappearance, the younger Bell brother was in attendance at the high school while Brandon was able to leave early for a varsity wrestling game.

    At a news conference Tuesday,*Jackie and Kenneth Johnson pleaded with the families from the 25 students who were on the wrestling team to speak out in light of the new information presented. They also spoke out with King about key details surrounding the new persons of interest. King is asking for high school officials to confirm the time Brandon and the rest of the team reached Macon, Georgia for their wrestling match since there is a suspected time lapse on when the teens reached the match and when Kendrick went missing. King believes the students left for the wrestling match around 4 p.m., instead of 1 p.m. like the team has insisted in the past.

    Surveillance video released shows Brandon walking in and out of the school’s gym where Kendrick would be found dead. Another video also shows Kendrick hours before his death waiting in line for lunch. Reports have confirmed that the a member of the wrestling team was ahead of Kendrick in line. Another teen is seen brushing Kendrick but his identify hasn’t been confirmed.

    *Lowndes County Sheriff Lt. Stryde Jones talked to reporters earlier this year and debunked the rumors that the brothers had anything to do with Kendrick’s murder. Phone records also showed that the wrestling coach was in Cordele, Georgia around 1:53 p.m. Johnson was last seen entering the gym at 1:09 p.m. on the day of his disappearance. It was also confirmed that the teen was weighed in at the tournament but it doesn’t list the time.

    Lowndes County Sheriff Lt. Stryde Jones told the Valdosta Times earlier this year that the brothers were never considered suspects and that foul play was not suspected in the 17-year-old Johnson’s death. He said authorities only wanted to speak to the brothers because of rumors.

    “We spent a lot of time chasing rumors and conducting interviews based on what we had heard,” Jones told the paper, also saying, “But class records show that the oldest brother was out of town, and the younger brother was at another part of the school when Kendrick entered the gym.”

    The older brother did attend a wrestling tournament in Macon that day, but Johnson’s parents and their attorney are calling into question when he departed the school for that tournament. They say a school bus travel log and school attendance records cast doubt on whether the older brother was already on a school bus going to the tournament when Johnson was last seen.

    The brother’s lawyer, Paul Threlkeld refuted the statements and stated that the students left before 1 p.m. to make it to the match in Macon.
    Paul Threlkeld, an attorney representing the brothers, sent a statement to Crimesider Tuesday labeling as “incorrect” the Johnson family’s claim that the bus did not leave Lowndes High School until 4 p.m. on Jan. 10, 2013.


    “We understand that the departure time was sometime between 12:15 and 12:30 PM, an hour before KJ entered the LCHS [Lowndes High School] old gym. This was after the students had the opportunity to eat early lunch,” Threlkeld said.
    Johnson’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit over the handling of the case. A second autopsy was done showing blunt force trauma to the teen’s head, clashing with previous statements that the teen died while trying to reach for his shoe in a rolled up gym mat.

  11. #586
    Senior Member animosity's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    17,287
    Rep Power
    21474865
    no school lets kids out of class 5 hours before leaving for some type of field trip. i'm certain the log book is wrong.
    Quote Originally Posted by songbirdsong View Post
    "Say, you know who could handle this penis? MY MOTHER."

  12. #587
    XoXo Miller22's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Posts
    7,113
    Rep Power
    21474855
    Quote Originally Posted by animosity View Post
    no school lets kids out of class 5 hours before leaving for some type of field trip. i'm certain the log book is wrong.


    This is just assanine.

  13. #588
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    611
    Rep Power
    6202138
    Quote Originally Posted by animosity View Post
    no school lets kids out of class 5 hours before leaving for some type of field trip. i'm certain the log book is wrong.
    Is this sarcasm? Because its not too far fetched. Some schools are really lenient with their athletes especially on travel game days. I used to be a cheerleader lol.

  14. #589
    Senior Member TupeloHoney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    ATL
    Posts
    2,927
    Rep Power
    21474850
    Yeah, and if the coach's phone was pinging Cordele at 12:53 p.m., the team was exactly where they should have been if they left the school at 12:15/12:30.

    Then again, maybe the cell phone company is in on the cover-up, too!





    I meant to post this article a while ago. It's an interview with the PI that was working for the family. According to him, his findings were the catalyst for the federal investigation ... and it sure sounds like his "findings" are a bunch of unsubstantiated crap.


    http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/ne...9bb2963f4.html

    PI: inquiry led to federal probe into KJ's death

    (Sept. 10, 2014) VALDOSTA -- A private investigator hired by the family of Kendrick Johnson to determine the cause of his death in January of 2013 says the federal inquiry into the case was initiated on the strength of his investigative report.

    But Beau Webster, president of Webster's Investigative Services, LLC, in Tallahassee, Fla., said he was unable to confirm the validity of the statements he obtained during his inquiry which were turned over to U.S. Attorney Michael Moore.

    Moore agreed to review the Johnson death last fall in the wake of accusations by the youth's family that he was a victim of foul play and not a bizarre accident in a Lowndes High School gym as determined by local and state authorities.

    Moore subsequently turned the case over to a federal grand jury for investigation. The grand jury has yet to issue a finding.

    Webster made the statements during an interview with The Valdosta Daily Times four months ago and stood by them during a conversation last week about his relationship with Frederic Rosen, the true crime writer who authored several articles on Ebony.com that suggested the 17-year-old Johnson was murdered.

    FBI agent Rick Bell and his wife, Karen, of Valdosta recently filed a $5 million defamation suit against the publisher of Ebony magazine and Rosen for the articles they said associated the Bells' teenage sons with Johnson's death.

    Webster, who identified himself as a former Florida police officer, said he was retained by Johnson family lawyer Chevene King a month after Johnson's body was found shoeless and upside down in a rolled-up, six-foot tall mat a day after he was observed on surveillance videos entering the high school gym. Webster said he interviewed several students, many more than once, and others.

    Lowndes County Sheriff's investigators and a Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy concluded that Johnson died of positional asphyxia when he became trapped upside down in the gym mat for several hours while trying to retrieve a pair of gym shoes.

    Johnson's parents insist their son was murdered, and that school officials and investigators covered up the crime. They commissioned a separate autopsy by a private pathologist, who concluded Johnson died of blunt force to the neck. They also filed suits against the funeral home that handled Johnson's body for how he was prepared for burial and the Lowndes County Board of Education for wrongful death.

    Webster said he and another private investigator, Harold Lee, were told by attorney King to "get to the bottom of the findings" surrounding Johnson's death.

    He said the pair worked without the cooperation of the sheriff's office or its investigative findings, even though the case file was made public through open records requests, one of which Webster filed on July 17, 2013, and acknowledged receiving Aug. 6, 2013.

    Speaking with The Times, Webster initially said he had never seen the case records. "I did not personally get it until a lot later date, and to this minute, I do not have any of that information on file," said Webster.

    Webster said he never looked at the photos of where Johnson's body was found or the official autopsy photos. He could not explain exactly when he received the case file or where the copy sent to him by the sheriff's office now resides. He said it may have been given, along with his investigative report, to U.S. Attorney Moore.

    The Times shared with Webster the death scene and autopsy photographs in the case file. Upon viewing them, he said they did not appear to show physical evidence of foul play. Yet, he said, he still believes Johnson was murdered.

    "I gave (U.S. Attorney) Michael Moore all the information on this case," said Webster. "Michael Moore and his assistant, Pete Peterman, sat there and analyzed it; looked at it and felt that it was a strong case. They accepted it and moved forward and did their investigation."

    Moore's office declined to provide a comment for this story.

    Webster said his final report consisted of statements from interviews conducted with students and individuals named by the Johnson family. He said persons interviewed "just couldn't believe" that Johnson died of asphyxia trying to retrieve his gym shoes from the rolled-up mat.

    The case file contained two written statements from students saying they, and Johnson, would often toss their gym shoes into the rolled-up mats to hide them. And Lt. Strdye Jones with the sheriff's office said Webster never made "any inquiries of this office while the Kendrick Johnson case was being investigated."

    Webster said he spoke with several students who claimed Johnson was lured into the high school's old gymnasium, beaten and rolled up in a mat. But Webster admitted none of the students claimed to have witnessed such an incident. Nor, Webster said, was he able to confirm any of their accusatory statements.

    "Everywhere we would go, we were just getting no cooperation," said Webster. "Naturally, the students, for the most part, were juveniles, so you have to have their parents with you to talk to them. In the interviews, they were scared. They were petrified."

    Webster said his biggest regret was introducing writer Rosen to the Johnson family. Rosen attributed several statements to Webster in his Ebony articles,. Webster said the articles soured his relationship with Johnson's parents, Kenneth and Jackie Johnson.

    He said he hasn't spoken with the Johnsons since, and that they have not paid for his services, aside from an initial stipend.

    "I'm still investigating this case," said Webster. "My heart and soul has been in the case since day one. It's very frustrating, and it really hurts how this case has evolved."
    Quote Originally Posted by Not your business View Post
    I will out think the fucking pants off of you and you would thank me for helping you out of them.

  15. #590
    Senior Member animosity's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    17,287
    Rep Power
    21474865
    Quote Originally Posted by Live2Love View Post
    Is this sarcasm? Because its not too far fetched. Some schools are really lenient with their athletes especially on travel game days. I used to be a cheerleader lol.
    not sarcasm - it stands to reason that if the students aren't supposed to leave until an hour and a half after school lets out, they should be in class the whole day.
    Quote Originally Posted by songbirdsong View Post
    "Say, you know who could handle this penis? MY MOTHER."

  16. #591
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Atlanta metro
    Posts
    1,070
    Rep Power
    11442687
    if they had a meet in macon that night to play in or watch, they would have left Valdosta well before 4 pm; especially in a bus.

  17. #592
    Senior Member TupeloHoney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    ATL
    Posts
    2,927
    Rep Power
    21474850
    Quote Originally Posted by TupeloHoney View Post
    Yeah, and if the coach's phone was pinging Cordele at 12:53 p.m., the team was exactly where they should have been if they left the school at 12:15/12:30.

    Then again, maybe the cell phone company is in on the cover-up, too!

    Oops! That shoulda said 1:53 p.m..




    Quote Originally Posted by AtlantaAndy View Post
    if they had a meet in macon that night to play in or watch, they would have left Valdosta well before 4 pm; especially in a bus.

    I totally agree. I was a scorekeeper for our hs wrestling team and am quite familiar with these state tournaments. (Yes, I was a "mat maid." Do they still call them that? Ugh. Such a terrible name.)

    It's exactly 150 miles from Lowndes High to Macon Centreplex, which would be a little over two hours in car ... longer in a bus.
    Quote Originally Posted by Not your business View Post
    I will out think the fucking pants off of you and you would thank me for helping you out of them.

  18. #593
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Atlanta metro
    Posts
    1,070
    Rep Power
    11442687
    i will admit to google mapping it last night, using Lowndes High and Macon Centreplex or whatever it is called today, it was 2 hours and 5 minutes with no traffic and at car speed, and even at 1 in the morning it was 2 hours and 10 minutes with traffic.

    It looked like that year's tournament started at 4, according to the Georgia High School Association.

  19. #594
    Senior Member TupeloHoney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    ATL
    Posts
    2,927
    Rep Power
    21474850
    Quote Originally Posted by AtlantaAndy View Post
    i will admit to google mapping it last night, using Lowndes High and Macon Centreplex or whatever it is called today, it was 2 hours and 5 minutes with no traffic and at car speed, and even at 1 in the morning it was 2 hours and 10 minutes with traffic.

    It looked like that year's tournament started at 4, according to the Georgia High School Association.
    Haha I totally Google mapped it too :)

    Good find on the tournament time ... I tried to find it, but all I found was ticket/venue info and brackets.
    Quote Originally Posted by Not your business View Post
    I will out think the fucking pants off of you and you would thank me for helping you out of them.

  20. #595
    Senior Member TupeloHoney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    ATL
    Posts
    2,927
    Rep Power
    21474850
    Found a good article from the VDT ...

    Chevene King and his "documentary filmmaker" brother are chock full o' shit.


    http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/ne...tml?TNNoMobile

    Documents, records cast doubt on KJ video

    (Nov. 19, 2014) VALDOSTA -- Documents and cell phone records obtained by The Valdosta Daily Times Thursday cast a cloud over a YouTube video released by Kendrick Johnson's family, claiming a Lowndes High School wrestler had no alibi at the time of the teenager's death.

    The video released Tuesday morning on behalf of KJ's parents claims a member of the school's wrestling team had motive to harm the teen and was on campus at the time Johnson was last seen on surveillance video entering the school's old gym.

    The Times obtained a weigh-in report of the wrestler implicated in the video and the private phone records of a Lowndes High wrestling coach.

    The coach's cell phone records show he received an incoming call while in Cordele at 1:53 p.m. Cordele is approximately 85 miles north of Lowndes High School, indicating that the wrestling team had left Lowndes High School more than an hour earlier.

    The school system's attorney confirmed to The Times the cell phone records did belong to a Lowndes High wrestling coach and the coach said all students scheduled to attend the event left at the same time.

    The weigh-in report of the wrestler implicated in the video, who is the oldest son of local FBI agent Rick Bell, dated Jan. 10, 2013, lists his weight as 170.5 lbs. and is signed by a Lowndes High coach and a GHSA head official.

    Turner said the weigh-in time for the event was 4 p.m.

    The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office is currently investigating the claim that the wrestling bus did not leave after the first lunch session, but the cell phone records and weigh-in report indicate the team was, as previously reported, traveling to the 6-A State Dual Championships wrestling match in Macon at the time of the incident, and not on the Lowndes campus.

    Johnson's body was found upside down in a rolled-up 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.

    Johnson is last seen on school surveillance video at 1:28 p.m. when he enters the old gym where the mats are stored.

    At the press conference Tuesday morning prior to the release of the video on YouTube, Kenneth and Jackie Johnson's attorney, Chevene King, read a prepared statement in which he said the parents had "learned the school's wrestling team had not left campus for a tournament the afternoon their son went missing, as previously thought."

    Following the press conference, Clennon King, Chevene's brother and documentary filmmaker, emailed the video link to members of the media. Clennon narrates the video that shows images of local FBI agent Rick Bell and his two sons, although the face of the younger son is blurred.

    Other media reported earlier this month Bell and his sons were "targets" of a grand jury investigation into Johnson's death.

    The video released Tuesday claimed the wrestling team did not leave until well after school had been dismissed and the older Bell son may have had a motive to harm Johnson due to an altercation between Johnson and his younger brother a year prior.

    During the press conference, King referred to what he described as a "travel log" which listed 4 p.m. as the departure time of the wrestling trip.

    However, the document is labeled a "trip request," and The Times has learned that the form was filled out by a wrestling coach weeks before the trip occurred. Warren Turner, attorney for Lowndes County Schools, said the form does not document the bus' movements.

    According to Turner, the listed time indicates the start of the event in Macon and not a departure time. Turner said the coach filled out the form the same way for all the trips and that the actual departure time was determined closer to the day of the event after personally speaking with the bus driver. However, that time is not indicated on the form.


    On the day of the event, the wrestling team took the school's first lunch session which lasts from 11:32 a.m. to 12:02 p.m. on Thursdays, said Turner. The team and coaches then boarded a bus and left for Macon, Turner said.

    Chevene King spoke with The Times during a phone interview Tuesday and said private investigators had interviewed a wrestling team member who claimed to have stood in line with Kendrick during first lunch before boarding the bus with the team. The video King released on behalf of the Johnsons makes the same claim.

    A Times reporter asked King if that same student then boarded the bus at 4 p.m., and King said he was "not in a position" to answer that question. King also was unable to state what grade the student was in at the time.

    Rick and Karen Bell declined to comment for this story. In August, the Bells filed a $5 million lawsuit against the publisher of Ebony Magazine and author Frederic Rosen for alleged libelous and slanderous statements made about their sons in connection with the Kendrick Johnson case.


    Also, the Johnson's dropped their claim of civil rights violations: http://m.valdostadailytimes.com/news....html?mode=jqm
    Quote Originally Posted by Not your business View Post
    I will out think the fucking pants off of you and you would thank me for helping you out of them.

  21. #596
    Junior Member Jim Moran's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    3
    Rep Power
    0
    Gotta wonder why CV King held a press conference to put pressure on the parents of the wrestlers rather than simply interviewing the wrestlers. Didn't have a phone, too busy?

    It was a publicity stunt and nothing more.

  22. #597
    Junior Member Jim Moran's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    3
    Rep Power
    0
    A wrestling team will typically show up an hour before weigh in in case one of it's members are over weight. Weigh in started at 4:PM for Lowndes division. A 12:15-12-30 departure time makes sense.

  23. #598
    Senior Member TupeloHoney's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    ATL
    Posts
    2,927
    Rep Power
    21474850
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Moran View Post
    Gotta wonder why CV King held a press conference to put pressure on the parents of the wrestlers rather than simply interviewing the wrestlers. Didn't have a phone, too busy?

    It was a publicity stunt and nothing more.


    Yep. Sure seems like a publicity stunt. Ridiculous.
    Quote Originally Posted by Not your business View Post
    I will out think the fucking pants off of you and you would thank me for helping you out of them.

  24. #599
    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Posts
    17,434
    Rep Power
    21474865
    I'm on a meme kick today...


    I don't know why people are still debating this.
    Attached Images Attached Images

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

  25. #600
    Senior Member IzzyCooper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    In my little town
    Posts
    407
    Rep Power
    10824757
    I just spent the last three hours reading this entire thread. Just a horrible, tragic accident.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •