Is The School Hiding Something? Kendrick Johnson Murder or Freak Accident?

[OCNewbie]

Not sure if this was already posted, but apparently there's been confirmation that Kendrick was not alone in the gym. There was at least one other student in there with him (apparently depicted in the surveillance video):

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/v...eo-evidence-in-kendrick-johnson-case.cnn.html

 

[SheHateMe]

Yea but they said they confirmed that kid made it to class.



They're also saying that students in the school hide their shoes around the gym because there aren't enough lockers....but I am banking that they also hide the shoes because people steal them.

 

[Geosurface]

So either he hid his basketball shoes on top of the mat and one fell in, or he had them on the ground nestled between mats, and some prankster kid thought it would be funny to grab one of them and toss it to see if he could get it to go inside the hole in a mat, and succeeded. Or something along those lines.

Then he makes the mistake of trying to retrieve it, not considering the danger the mat represents.

Then the parents, media, etc decide to report on it in a way that makes it sound like something sinister went on.

 

[Geosurface]

Here's some lady who's been the NAACP president in the area Kendrick died, who has studied the case for 10 months and talked with everyone, crime lab, police, looked at everything available, the entire case file, etc.

http://valdostatoday.com/2013/10/touchton-says-kj-death-accidental/

Two part radio interview.

She believes it was an accidental death just as the police say.

 

[unokitty]

Federal prosecutor to probe death of teen found in gym mat

A federal prosecutor in Georgia said Thursday he will conduct a formal review in the case of a Valdosta teen found dead in January inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at a high school gym.

U.S. Attorney Michael Moore made the announcement one day after a judge, at the request of Kendrick Johnson's parents, ordered authorities to release all surveillance video reviewed by authorities in the case. Moore said that if he determines that a criminal investigation is merited, the FBI will conduct it.

"I am committed to do everything in my power to answer the questions that exist in this case, or as many as we can," Moore said at his Macon office.

Hopefully, the Feds can bring some transparency to whatever happened...

Uno

 

[Geosurface]

Having looked a lot more closely into this, I feel very confident this inquiry is a show to say "see? We took it seriously, so calm down." And that Mr. Moore already agrees with the previous investigation.

 

[smackababy]

There is a new story on CNN this morning about a new twist in the case. However, it is blocked at work for me.

 

[SheHateMe]

I haven't been checking in on this case lately. Things are really picking up at work and I normally go home and veg out watching cartoons (my guilty pleasure). Haven't really been following any news this week. I did see something new about it on CNN yesterday when I went out to lunch with the team...but, I couldn't hear what they were saying.

I'll have to look it up.




*edit* Found this: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/v...01/exp-newday-blackwell-johnson-case.cnn.html


This is what I saw on the TV in the restaurant yesterday.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Federal prosecutor to probe death of teen found in gym mat



Hopefully, the Feds can bring some transparency to whatever happened...

Uno

What's the basis for a Federal investigation here?

 

[SheHateMe]

What's the basis for a Federal investigation here?

Inconsistency with what happened. For starters, they measured the circumference of the hole Kendrick "fell" down. It was 14" wide....his shoulder span was 19"....


Kind of hard getting stuff into a hole it can't fit in.....



Another video they have: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/v...-kendrick-johnson-in-hallway-and-gym.cnn.html Theres no timestamps on this surveillance video, btw

 

[werepossum]

Federal prosecutor to probe death of teen found in gym mat

Hopefully, the Feds can bring some transparency to whatever happened...

Uno

Agreed. I have no problem with believing it was a freak accident, but if so the local LEOs should be going out of their way to satisfy everyone's concerns, not closing ranks which just makes people suspect foul play.

 

[SheHateMe]

Agreed. I have no problem with believing it was a freak accident, but if so the local LEOs should be going out of their way to satisfy everyone's concerns, not closing ranks which just makes people suspect foul play.

Exactly, if they are sure it was a freak accident, they should easily be able to defend their position.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Agreed. I have no problem with believing it was a freak accident, but if so the local LEOs should be going out of their way to satisfy everyone's concerns, not closing ranks which just makes people suspect foul play.

I suspect they're closing ranks is more due to legal advice and orders upon high to speak only through legal counsel.

 

[werepossum]

Exactly, if they are sure it was a freak accident, they should easily be able to defend their position.

Or at least spread around the evidence so that even if not everyone comes to the same conclusion, everyone at least admits their conclusion is honestly derived, not merely a wild theory that's "good enough" to shut down the investigation.

I suspect they're closing ranks is more due to legal advice and orders upon high to speak only through legal counsel.

Probably, but I think that is counterproductive. It's like when an inmate throws himself face first onto a concrete floor and dies; that's an inherently non-likely event, so unless the investigation is completely open and transparent people tend to believe the much more understandable scenario that a jailer bashed in his face. Closing ranks may seem like a smart legal tactic and in many cases probably is, but when a minor is dead of a freak accident, being anything less than completely open and transparent convinces people that there is at least a cover-up if not complicity in a murder. If told that one healthy young male murdered another, we tend to believe it absent conflicting information as that is part of the human condition. If told that one healthy young male took a dive into a tall and very tightly rolled mat and suffocated to death in a school gym during school hours, we tend to not believe it because this is certainly not part of the human condition. We might believe it if he was trapped inside a chimney (burglary gone wrong) or a pipe leading to the girl's shower room, but the idea that this young man would dive or fall face first into the roll - something that 99 times out of a hundred he probably couldn't do intentionally given the respective sizes of him and the opening - just defies belief. Legal counsel should recognize this and that therefore closing ranks and keeping silent is not a smart tactic.

This is something we all recognize as within the realm of possibility, though barely, but so fantastic that unless everything seems perfectly consistent, open and above board we tend not to believe it.

 

[Fern]

I've seen some of the videos on TV. Looks like there were a numberl other people in the gym with him. I've begun thinking it's possible that some guys shoved him into that mat and left him there as a prank. I.e., his death was a prank that went badly.

Fern

 

[Geosurface]

This is another case like Trayvon where a casual glance at the facts from a distance, through the MSM filter, gives a certain impression but understanding the truth requires detailed attention to the facts on the ground.

I'm on tapatalk so linking is difficult, but if you are willing to listen to a 40 min interview things get much clearer. Former head of the Valdosta NAACP, Leah Touchton gave the interview with local radio on like Oct 22nd and it can be found at Valdosta Today website or on YouTube probably by searching "NAACP Touchton"

I know most won't, so I'll sum up some key points:

- Kendrick was found with one arm outreached in front of him, as it'll reaching for the sneaker, and the other along his side. Same position they use to get babies out during difficult pregnancies. This reduced his shoulder width. Also remember that the mats have a certain amount of give to them and could expand to accommodate.

- The mat he was in was a cheer leading mat, 6 feet tall when vertical. It was behind several others and was up against the wall. The cleaning crew had recently put many more than would usually be vertical into they corner for floor cleaning. Students were in the practice of storing gym shoes on the mats and sharing some.

More later, movie starting.

 

[OverVolt]

I've rolled up mats like that with a group of people. They are nothing to screw with when you are alone.

I'm about 90% positive he died by accident. I'm not seeing any kind of motive either.

If there was foul play, I'm thinking it was the accidental variety. Like someone rolled him up in the mat as a prank and he suffocated by accident. So it would be manslaughter at best. They'd have to figure out who did it if that's the case. I'm not sure the evidence really supports other people involved though.

 

[SheHateMe]

They should just release all the damn details about what condition he was in when he was found and maybe his family wouldn't have thought he was murdered.

From what his parents says in interview...they were given little information about Kendrick. His family wants answers...its what they've always wanted. The authorities were not willing to give them anything, so what are they going to do? Just let it slide? They have a right to think something else happened...and they also have the right to learn the truth.


So, yea....lets bring up Trayvon for no reason at all.

 

[Matt1970]

Without going through the last 4 pages, what happened with the second autopsy?

Eventually, the parents have an order filed to exhume the boy's body for a second autopsy. The second medical examiner found signs of foul play. The boy did not die from suffocation, he died from blunt force trauma to the neck.

That's pretty compelling that he wasn't rolled up in the mat and died from asphyxia.

 

[Geosurface]

From what Touchton said, it sounds like the narrative of a cryptic, dismissive police department isn't as straight forward as has been presented.

She flat out says the family and their lawyer have lied about police not giving info when they actually did, and strategically released inflammatory details months after knowing them, in order to create the impression of police stonewalling.

This may have been done to generate more sympathy, more attention, and more money.

 

[Geosurface]

Without going through the last 4 pages, what happened with the second autopsy?



That's pretty compelling that he wasn't rolled up in the mat and died from asphyxia.

There are good reasons to place considerably more trust in the first autopsy and medical examiner.

Second was paid specifically to find foul play, and has a shady track record.

 

[Matt1970]

There are good reasons to place considerably more trust in the first autopsy and medical examiner.

Second was paid specifically to find foul play, and has a shady track record.

Ahh, ok.

 

[Geosurface]

Okay now I'm on a proper computer. I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression that I am some authority on this or that I should be blindly believed. I really encourage everyone to take the time to listen to this interview I was talking about earlier:

http://valdostatoday.com/2013/10/touchton-says-kj-death-accidental/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTLTB8umoZ8

I just found what she had to say pretty compelling because she was a heavy hitter in the Valdosta "social justice/diversity" community. A community I personally have just about zero respect for, but the fact that someone prominent within it was able to see what appears to be the hard truth on this matter, carries weight with me. Because they'd have every reason not to.

She was apparently pretty involved in the early rallies, and it would appear she started out on the other side of this issue. She seems to have been invited by the law enforcement, as well as the SPLC, to be the liaison between the two camps, or something like that, and be exposed directly to all the involved investigators, all the information, etc.

I think the investigating bodies viewed her somewhat as someone they could show everything, be open and honest with, and that she could go back to her community as an ambassador of the truth. Which seems to be exactly what she's doing.

I'm not just making an appeal to her authority. She provides good, logical reasons to favor her conclusion that it was a tragic accident.

She makes a good case that the police have not been anywhere near as obstructionist or cryptic with the family as the family would have us believe.

I think the investigation was not perfect, but was completely adequate and reached the right conclusion. It just wasn't a conclusion the parents could accept easily, which I can understand. And it wasn't a conclusion Ben Crump and Shaveen King could make money off of.

 

[Geosurface]

Re: the whole issue of the internal organs, the coroner wrote a letter explaining that:

http://www.news4jax.com/blob/view/-/22393946/data/1/-/1564v2ez/-/Coroner-s-letter.pdf

"This is in reference to the death of a young man, age 17 years with the name of Kendrick

Johnson. Mr. Johnson's family chose to contract the services of Harrington Funeral
Home, which is owned by Antonio Harrington.

In the beginning of this saga, Mr. Johnson's partially decomposed body, was sent to the
Medical Examiner's office, to confirm the cause and maimer of death. This case was
handled like all other cases. that is sent to the lab for this procedure. It is the sole
discretion of the office of the Medical Examiner, what is done. In this case, the Viscera,
Which is the internal organs, were not sent back with the body, for disposition. It was
confirmed by Mr. Bryan, who was present at the autopsy, that the viscera were disposed
of, due to decomposition of the same.

There were no wrong doings on the behalf of Mr. Harrington, nor the Medical
Examiner's office. Any accusations are unfounded, and should be retracted by the
accuser. I was present when this phone call was placed.and overheard the conversations."

 

[ThinClient]

Wow, the argument that the school is hiding something is quite compelling.