The federal lawsuit filed by the parents of Kendrick Johnson has been reassigned to a fifth judge – this time to a jurist facing impeachment over a misconduct scandal involving sexual encounters with a high-ranking cop inside her chambers.
U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross was assigned to the case on June 9, the same day Judge Steven D. Grimberg recused himself without explanation.
Her assignment came as a Georgia congressman introduced articles of impeachment against her based on findings from a judicial misconduct investigation.
However, the impeachment effort is separate from the Johnson case and does not change how their civil lawsuit proceeds through the courts.
And Kendrick Johnson’s parents say the impeachment drama is not what concerns them.
“Having sex is not considered a felony,” Kenneth Johnson said in a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star.
“All this fraud, all this lying that these judges turn a blind eye to – that’s way worse than someone having sex on the job.”
The Johnsons believe their son was murdered after he was found dead inside a rolled-up mat in the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, in 2013, and that investigators have covered it up even after officials ruled his death an accident from positional asphyxia.
They have filed multiple lawsuits since 2014, only to have them dismissed on procedural grounds.
The latest lawsuit filed on March 3 targets the federal judges the family accuses of denying them the opportunity to present their case to a jury.
“They don’t want it to go to trial because of the amount of proof it shows,” Kenneth Johnson said.
“They’re trying their best to keep it out of court and keep this thing on a hush-hush, and these judges are helping them,” he added.
Amended Lawsuit With More Details
The lawsuit was 35 pages when initially filed in early March, but it was amended on March 23 with a 123-page lawsuit that goes into greater detail about the alleged cover-up.
Listed as defendants are Chief Judge Leigh Martin May, Judge Sarah Geraghty, and the Northern District of Georgia, who are accused of having “joined the murder coverup conspiracy” that also includes the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, the Valdosta-Lowndes Regional Crime Laboratory, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The case was initially assigned to Geraghty, even though she is a defendant, because the court uses an automated system that randomly assigns judges to cases.
She recused herself days later, and the case was assigned to Judge Amy Totenberg, who declined to take the case, followed by Judge Steve C. Jones, who also declined.
Grimberg took over the case in mid-March before stepping aside in June, when it was assigned to Ross, about two weeks after news of her reprimand for repeated inappropriate encounters with an Atlanta police deputy chief in her chambers over a two-year period went public.
The reprimand also accused Ross of attending a partisan event tied to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ campaign — conduct that federal ethics rules prohibit.
Those findings prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to seek her removal from a separate election-records case involving Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. She later recused herself.”
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Georgia Republican, then filed articles of impeachment against her based on the reprimand by the Eleventh Circuit’s Judicial Council.
In apology letters to former clerks, Ross acknowledged her actions were “patently wrong.”
“I have no excuse and immensely regret my behavior,” she wrote, according to The New York Times.
‘They are Not Looking at the Proof’
The Johnsons say they are not concerned about Ross presiding over their case and do not believe the impeachment effort will determine its outcome.
Instead, Kenneth Johnson said he is far more troubled by what he describes as courts repeatedly shutting down their claims without allowing a jury to hear the evidence.
“I am not burdened by someone having sex. I am worried about all the other corruptions that are going on in these courts, and they are turning a blind eye to them,” he said.
“None of these people are doing their job when you have so much evidence before the court,” Kenneth Johnson said. “It is so much harm being done by these judges and these US attorneys.”
“A Black child being murdered – not only a Black child, any child being murdered on a school campus. How do they turn a blind eye to it?” he continued.
“What these other judges have done is far more than what she has done. And they haven’t put articles of impeachment against them.”
