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VALDOSTA — The lawyer for the family of Kendrick “KJ” Johnson claims the City of Valdosta has tried to interfere with a planned second exhumation of their son’s remains.

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, and a federal review of the case ended in 2016 when the Department of Justice announced it had not found “sufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges.”

The Johnson family insists their son died of foul play and have filed multiple lawsuits against dozens of defendants through the years.

He was buried in Sunset Hill Cemetery, a city-owned property.

Chevene King, an Albany-based attorney representing the Johnsons, said the family wants the body exhumed again for additional tests.

“We want to make sure all the evidence that can be presented is presented,” he said.

KJ’s body was first exhumed in June 2013 by court order because the family wanted an autopsy separate from the state’s. In this case, William R. Anderson, an Ocala, Fla.-based pathologist hired by the Johnsons, said blunt-force trauma was evident. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s official autopsy claimed KJ died from accidental positional asphyxia with no sign of blunt force trauma.

Tim Tanner, Valdosta’s city attorney, said King recently presented a new permit request to exhume the body for another autopsy. The permit request, signed by the Lowndes County registrar, was submitted on the last business day before Christmas 2017, according to court documents.

“(The attorney) also unilaterally stated they would exhume (KJ’s) body at some unspecified time on or before Friday, Dec. 29, 2017, the last business day before New Year’s Day,” according to superior court documents. The self-imposed deadline was never met and the body has not yet been exhumed, Tanner said.

The city sought a restraining order. King referred to this as “interference with this process by the motion filed before the start of the year.”

In court documents, the city claims, “This order is necessary as King has stated his intentions to refuse to permit anyone representing Defendants to be present with the body during disinterment, reinterment, testing and/or examination,” court documents state.

The City of Valdosta is among dozens of defendants who have been named in various lawsuits brought by the Johnson family.

King claims the restraining order, which outlines steps the family must take to have the body exhumed, amounts to a denial of permission to exhume the body, “as opposed to an unfettered right to have access to their child’s body.”

The city’s request for the restraining order, dated Dec. 27, 2017, says the City of Valdosta does not object to the exhumation, but wants to be told in writing what will be done with the body; who will perform the tests and at what time and location; that cemetery officials and the funeral home director arrange the disinterment to take place not more than 30 days after the restraining order is issued; that representatives of lawsuit defendants be allowed to see, review and record all testing on the body; that the body be reburied within 24 hours of disinterment; and that the plaintiffs obey all laws and regulations about disinterment and reburial.

Superior Court Judge J. Richard Porter III issued the 30-day restraining order covering all of the city’s concerns on Dec. 28, 2017. King said he cannot comment on when the exhumation might take place as he is still in the midst of making “appropriate arrangements.”

In the years since the teen’s death, the Johnson family has launched various lawsuits against dozens of individuals in state and federal courts. A lawsuit filed in Lowndes County Superior Court against dozens of defendants for $100 million was dropped in March 2016. A federal investigation found no conclusive evidence of foul play. A federal lawsuit was dropped when an attorney representing Johnson’s parents failed to meet filing deadlines.

In August, the Johnsons were ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses associated with the lawsuits they filed.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.