This blog stays updated with cases of Police Brutality against Black Men and the Black Community. These are just the cases that we are fortunate enough to hear about. But, there are several "unsung victims" whose story has never been told or videotaped. Infamous cases such as Rodney King and Oscar Grant are not isolated incidents. They exist amongst a corrupt system of impunity. Who am I? I am a “Concerned Member of the Black Community.”
Steven L. Johnson's mother Renee McGhee believes that law enforcement officials in Macon, Georgia murdered her son by beating, shooting and throwing him into the Ocmulgee River, and were successful in involving most of the criminal justice entities in a cover-up.
The best friend of the Georgia teen mysteriously found dead inside a rolled up gym mat today claimed he was threatened on Facebook 'that he too could end up in a body bag' just hours after his friend's body was discovered.
Soloman Arrington, 16, told MailOnline that he was still reeling from the news that Kendrick Johnson, 17, was dead on January 11 when he received the chilling message.
It is another shocking twist in the bizarre death of the teenager from the small city of Valdosta in Lowndes County, Georgia - a tragedy the family believe was down to 'foul play' despite a four-month police investigation that ruled it accidental.
Buddies: Kendrick, described as 'quiet and shy', behind friend Soloman Arrington
at a Lowndes High School Vikings game in 2011.
Shunned: Soloman and another friend of Kendrick's, Rickey Gidens, right,
say many at the high school now refuse to speak to them
since the teenager's mysterious death
After months of campaigning, the U.S. Attorney for Middle Georgia Michael Moore announced last Thursday that he would hold a formal review of the case.
Moore said if the review of the evidence warrants it he will ask the FBI to investigate Kendrick's death was the result of a crime’ and potentially prosecute ‘those responsible.’
As MailOnline exclusively reported Kendrick’s father Kenneth Johnson is convinced his son was killed and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office failed in their duty to thoroughly investigate the death because of a 'good ol' boy system' - an allegation officials deny.
He also revealed how Kendrick had previously been involved in a fight with a football teammate on a bus that had led to the police being called. But officers said they investigated the scuffle and ruled it had nothing to do with Kendrick's death.
Shock was already setting in after Soloman learned that his best friend had died when he was allegedly sent the message which left him looking over his shoulder.
‘I just didn’t want to think about it, really,' he said. But his mother, Keisha Moore, took action.
She said: ‘It was a message that said my son “would end up in a body bag,” and I thought this is nothing to play with. This is not a joke.’
Ms Moore reported the message to a detective from the Lowndes County Sherriff’s Office, but says he quickly downplayed it. ‘The detective told me I didn’t have to worry about that person because they knew where he was,’ she said.
Freak death: Kendrick's body, left, was found stuck inside a rolled up mat in his high school gym on January 11. Nearly a year later the family are still fighting for justice after the police said it was an 'accident'
Kendrick's father Kenneth and mother Jacqueline, seen center
protesting outside the courthouse, are grateful that a federal prosecutor
is reviewing the case after months of campaigning
When she pleaded for the authorities to pursue it further she says detectives there told her they were hamstrung because the person was out of their jurisdiction. ‘They said they couldn’t do nothing because we live in a different county,' she said.
Ms Moore and Soloman haven't got the message anymore and refuse to say who sent it.
However, Lt. Stryde Jones, of the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office told MailOnline that authorities were aware of the comments made to Soloman and possibly others insisting they were taken seriously and investigated.
‘They were not threats,’ he said. ‘They were comments made on Facebook, I believe, and we followed up and interviewed those that allegedly made them.’
He said those interviews ‘didn’t provide us any information that would be beneficial.’
Before Kendrick's body was identified, Ms Moore says members from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office questioned Arrington at the station to talk about his missing friend in the hope he might be able to find him.
‘They came here before on that day and they ask me questions about Kendrick,’ Arrington said. ‘They said he was missing.
‘They was asking a lot of questions like what [Kendrick] had on the last time you seen him what kinds of shoes he was wearing.’
She said it was in the middle of their interview with a detective when her phone began ringing.
‘We was like, wait a minute they found Kendrick at school; we need to leave here.’
Soloman Arrington and his mother headed straight to Lowndes High School.
They claim that they were told by a school principal that another girl received a similar threatening message. But Ms Moore said neither the sheriff or school authorities pursued the issue thoroughly.
‘The principal showed the message to the resource officer and still nothing was done,' she said.
The Lowndes County Board of Education declined to comment about Kendrick's death or the Facebook comments.
The original investigation headed by Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) determined that Johnson’s died by ‘positional asphyxia’ while the young boy attempted to recover sneakers he’d stashed in a wrestling mat at Lowndes High School’s old gym.
Last moments: Kendrick (white shirt) is spotted on CCTV moments before entering the gym after another boy. He was found dead the next day. The family are demanding more footage to be released.
Trap: His family believe he was lured into the gym.
A funeral took place but Kendrick's family later pushed to exhume the body and had an independent doctor perform a second autopsy.
Shockingly, the boy’s organs were shockingly mishandled and possibly even destroyed after being moved from the morgue to the funeral home and replaced with newspaper.
Dr. William R. Anderson issued a report in August saying the teenager died from blunt force trauma near his carotid artery and that the fatal blow appeared to be non-accidental. A judge is now weighing whether or not to call a coroner’s inquest into Kendrick's death before a jury.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the agency who performed the original autopsy, said they ‘don’t have an opinion one way or the other’ if the judge moves ahead with the inquest.
GBI Spokeswoman Sherry Lang said she’s confident their agency's investigating will stand up to any scrutiny.
‘We stand by the autopsy results 100 percent and we have complete faith with our medical examiners and we stand by our report.’
On the day Johnson was found, another friend Rickey Giddens remembers everybody’s mobile phones pinging nonstop. But then he saw Kendrick’s mother and everything changed.
‘This student came back to class and she was crying saying they found a dead body. We ran to the front and I didn’t know it was Kendrick until I see his mama out there crying.’
Rickey and many of Kendrick’s friends were puzzled why the school administration didn’t suspend classes for the day and send everybody home.
‘They were still having classes like it was a normal day,’ he told MailOnline. ‘It was like they found a dog or something.
‘They told us ‘Call your parents if you want. And we had to come back to school the next day.’
Police maintain Kendrick died reaching for a sneaker that had fallen into the center of the upright mat. But his family say he wouldn't have been able to fit easily and if it was true - he was 5ft 10ins, the gym mat was 6ft tall - why did no-one spot his feet poking out if he really had been reaching his arms out to get the shoe?
An extremely disturbing photo of Kendrick's face, right, was released, showing it bloodied and bloated - leading the family's own private forensic expert to say that he had been victim of blunt force trauma.
On the left is a picture of blood found on the gym wall. The police insist this was not Kendrick's
After Johnson’s death Soloman and his friends say they were given the silent treatment by many of at the school. ‘It was different,’ he said. ‘They didn’t talk to us no more. We're in the middle of everybody but not many people talk to us.’
The dead boys’ friends and family say they were also slighted when virtually every member from the high school faculty, including his coaches, were absent at the funeral.
‘Only two teachers came to K.J.’s funeral,’ Rickey told MailOnline. ‘And a substitute teacher came.’
The three teachers joined a mass of mourners; some included Kendrick’s middle school football coaches and his middle school principals, while others traveled from rival high schools and drove long distances to pay their respects. Rickey said the abandonment hurt.
Kendrick was discovered when two students noticed his socked feet popping out of one of the vertically stowed wrestling mats where students would stash clothes and personal items to avoid paying locker fees.
The mats themselves stand six-foot tall and Kendrick Johnson was 5-feet-10 - this fact alone has been troubling for the boy’s parents and friends to understand.
They struggle to understand how Kendrick could have got stuck in the mat if his arms were outstretched to reach for the shows, meaning the rest of his body would be sticking out.
An extremely disturbing picture of Kendrick's bloated and bloodied face after his death have fueled cries of injustice.
Kendrick's father has also been very vocal as to how Kendrick, who's shoulders measure 19 inches across, could have fit in the mat when the opening is usually 14-and-a half inches across.
Motion-sensored surveillance footage released last week shows Kendrick walking through the corridor of Lowndes High School’s old gym at around 1 pm on January 10 along with at least one other student who enters the gym ahead of Kendrick.
Fight: Keisha Moore, Kendrick's aunt and Soloman's mother, took the Facebook message to the police who said told the family it was nothing to worry about
final insult: When Kendrick's body was exhumed for another autopsy, the family were horrified to discover his organs had been destroyed and replaced with newspaper.
It is only partial footage, however, and the parents are still waiting for the release of even more footage - about 1,900 hours - going back to when Kendrick went missing.
That evening basketball teams and the school’s color guard were both captured on camera practicing. That evening Kendrick’s family filed a missing person’s report.
It wasn’t until January 11 that the gruesome discovery of Kendrick's body was made at 10.30am.
Shoes found near the body were splattered with red, but the authorities said this wasn't blood and didn't collect them as evidence.
Responding cops cordoned off the gym investigators found two specks of blood.
‘Nothing was done with K.J’s body,’ Lt. Stryde Jones told MailOnline. ‘He wasn’t moved. He wasn’t examined until the coroner arrived.’
According to the Lt. Jones, the students were questioned and the following morning’s physical education class was as well. Two blood samples were discovered and tagged at the scene.
While one of them turned out to be a bloody tissue discarded in a bathroom nearby, another was found on a wall nearby Kendrick's body and the testing was inconclusive.
‘The forensic testing doesn’t support a fight,’ Lt. Jones said. ‘Blood was found in the bathroom and the other was from an unknown source.’
Pressed about whether that blood sample could return a hit back to another student who could have valuable information about Kendrick'’s death, Lt. Jones said they ‘still have the DNA sample’ but the chances of determining who it belongs to was slim. ‘It’s a school of 3,000,' he said.
Pew Charitable Trusts reports that 1 in 9 black children in the United States has a parent in prison or jail. America’s growing prison population has resulted in more children growing up without the love of a parent. Roughly 2.7 million children have a parent behind bars. That equals 1 in every 28 children. Only 25 years ago, it was 1 in 125 children, until the advent of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for crack vs. powder cocaine possession - a racist law that discriminated against minorities but had the blessing of the 1986 Black Congressional Caucus. Prison profiteering is spreading like an airborne disease. Visit "Children of Inmates" website http://www.childrenofinmates.org/Home.aspx.
Many minors are in the justice system themselves. Children Defense Fund reports, "Nationally, 1 in 3 Black and 1 in 6 Latino boys born in 2001 are at risk of imprisonment during their lifetime. While boys are five times as likely to be incarcerated as girls, there also is a significant number of girls in the juvenile justice system. This rate of incarceration is endangering children at younger and younger ages." Visit the Children Defense Fund at this link http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/
New York Times reports, "Proportionally, the United States has four times as many prisoners as Israel, six times as many as Canada or China, eight times as many as Germany and 13 times as many as Japan.With just a little more than 4 percent of the world’s population, the United States accounts for a quarter of the planet’s prisoners and has more inmates than the leading 35 European countries combined . . . There’s also a national election in the United States soon. This issue isn’t on the agenda . . . Barack Obama, the first black president, rarely mentions this question or how it disproportionately affects minorities. More than 60 percent of the United States’ prisoners are black or Hispanic, though these groups comprise less than 30 percent of the population. See "A Country of Inmates" at this link http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/us/21iht-letter21.html?pagewanted=all
Actually, America's high incarceration rate was placed on the presidential agenda by Rep. Ron Paul, who promised to pardon every nonviolent drug offender and end the War on Drugs. That would be a positive Change for millions of individual families, communities, and state budgets. Fulfilling that one campaign promise might have released over half the African Americans presently in prison, which is probably why Rep. Paul is censored like Mary Neal and others who are against mass incarceration. Instead of reducing America's incarceration rate, both presidential candidates from the two major parties agree on implementing indefinite detention in military camps for persons to be incarcerated without criminal charges or trials. Virtually every country that ever had concentration camps used them primarily for minorities. Rep. Paul opposed NDAA's concentration camp provision and introduced H.R.3785 to repeal the law. Now who's prejudice?
This writer commissioned the drawing below to illustrate the return to slavery for over a million African Americans through the prison industrial complex and the negative impact this has on children. (Do not reproduce the drawing without permission from the artist. Please use Streeter's email address on the drawing to contact him for all of your artistic needs.)
I emailed an article that included Jason Smith's death, which the 14-year-old's father said was a KKK killing in Louisiana. The article exposed five(5) deaths of people whose families differ with the medical examiners' findings. See "Suicides, Accidents, and Government Cover-ups" in MaryLovesJustice blog at this link
When I copied the article about Jason and others into an email and sent it, only three of the four videos showed at the bottom of my Gmail screen. The Jason Smith video was missing. Therefore, to ensure that you know about little Jason's death, which was ruled an accidental drowning, I republished his video along with some some recent radio interviews in this article. The JudicialJustice group at Facebook is working to expose Jason's death and get closure for his family. Dr. Randy Short and Rozalyn Ratcliff lead the justice quest for Jason's family.
Some recent radio interviews by the two advocates and Jason's father are beneath the embedded video herein. Perhaps cyberstalkers rendered the entire paragraph about Jason's death invisible on my email, so it is repeated below, also. Mr. Smith's audio was published on PressTV (Iranian television station) at this link: Bruce Smith: My son was beaten, raped, murdered by KKK http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/256247.html
A 14-year-old Louisiana youth's death was ruled "accidental drowning," but his father is convinced he was murdered by the KKK.
His organs disappeared. Some people think they were taken for transplants. However, the child had been dead for hours before his body was recovered from a lake. Could all of Jason Smith's organs have been stolen to hide the theft of his lungs, which could possibly have disproved the medical examiner's finding of "accidental drowning"?
Jason's father alleges that one of Jason's murderers was the son of an FBI agent. He claims that police tried to kill him and another son on his way out of the Louisiana town when he went to make final arrangements for his son.
Petitioning the U.S. Attorney General's Office: "We Demand a Federal Hate Crime Investigation!"
It is very likely that signatures on this petition will be surreptitiously deleted or that some people will get a denial of service (DoS) trying to sign it. It has been my experience that Attorney General Holder has zero interest in doing investigations on black people's deaths, and he would probably prefer not to be asked to do so. See WRONGFUL DEATH OF LARRY NEAL.com at the link below to the website about my mentally, physically disabled brother's murder in Memphis Shelby County Jail, which was under direct supervision by the United States Department of Justice after lawsuit by the United States due to inmate brutality http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com.
The Justice Department actually helped the jail to cover up Larry's murder by allowing the "correctional facility" to file fraudulent reports in its federal release hearings in 2006 that omitted Larry's arrest (perjury by county officials). When I was a teen, there was a song that topped the charts entitled, "That's the Way I Feel About You." Unrequited murders of black people seem to reflect what this administration feels that black people deserve, despite giving the president 90% of the black vote in 2008. My family's petition for an investigation regarding Larry's murder after 18 days of secret arrest was sabotaged like Jason Smith's petition might be.
And there was no federal investigation into the disappearance and death of Mitrice Richardson, a young black woman who "disappeared" immediately after allegedly being released from a jail in California in 2009, whose bones were discovered a year later. Pit bulls' deaths are investigated in the United States. In fact, Eric Holder conducted an investigation regarding Michael Vick's pit bulls' deaths for the NFL. However, Africans in America do not ordinarily qualify for DOG JUSTICE. Instead there is the "illusion of inclusion" portrayed when blacks are represented in wrongful death civil actions and often defrauded by The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm. Google "COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD."
Although Jason's story has been on Black Talk Radio and international media, there is still an effort to contain the news about the young teen's death and his missing organs. How long will mainstream media in the U.S.A. be like the State-owned media under Egypt's ousted dictator? Journalists ignored their duty to report a rebellion that was right outside their doors while the world watched hundreds of thousands of Egyptians protest. May God bless young Jason's family with justice and peace. As Dr. King pointed out, we must have both. Authorities would prefer for Jason's father to forget he ever had that son. They would also prefer for this writer to stop publishing articles about the secret arrest and murder of my handicapped brother and news about other victimized persons, but as Reverend King eloquently said, "No justice, no peace."
The drawing "Justice Mountain" by Taggert is copyright protected. Please read the article for which I commissioned the art at this link: "JUSTICE MOUNTAIN" http://maryneal.hubpages.com/hub/Liberty-Mountain
Thank you for your interest in justice issues as relayed by this layperson. Please help to overcome censorship about Jason's death and other victimized people by sharing articles in my FreeSpeakBlog and MaryLovesJustice blog. Check the links after you copy this article to ensure there is a space before and after the link (stalkers replace spaces with non-breaking spaces that disappear upon using the copy/paste function to render the links inoperable). Share the links for articles published by Mary Neal at HubPages. See continual attacks on this writer's "freedom" of press in my blog, JusticeGagged. Pray that America will some day "be true to what she said on paper" (MLK). The only way for that to happen is to expose and renounce deception. Thanks in advance for standing against oppression and supporting Jason Smith's family and my own. Blessings!
Gregory Johnson Jr. would have turned 21 on March 1. “He was talking about his 21st birthday,” his mother, Rev. Denise Johnson of Clearlake, told the Lake County Record-Bee. “He was making plans to live, not to die.” She questions the suicide theory posed by law enforcement officials, remembering her son as a positive, cheerful young man.
These pictures, taken at the mortuary prior to the application of cosmetics,
show no bruising on Gregory Johnson’s neck.
“He had everything in front of him. He had a year and a half to go before he graduated and already had his AA in political science. He was well loved by his friends and peers and had intentions of running for fraternity president,” Rev. Johnson said, explaining why she believes he did not commit suicide. A certified personal trainer at Bali’s Fitness Gym in San Jose, Gregory was considering an internship with the Golden State Warriors and was in good academic standing.
Gregory was the only African American in the Sigma Chi Fraternity at San Jose State University.
Dana Overstreet, supervisor of the Homicide Division of the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, said Thursday, Feb. 5, that police are still investigating the suspicious death of Gregory Johnson Jr., a sophomore at San Jose State University, who was found dead in the basement of the Sigma Chi fraternity house Nov. 22, 2008.
Gregory Johnson Jr. and his mother, Rev. Denise Johnson, celebrate his birthday with the family last Aug. 4 in a luxury suite at the A's game - his birthday gift.
- Photo: Sekou Gilchrist, Gregory's big brother
Capt. Forester of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, who manages the medical examiner’s and coroner’s office, said Feb. 5 that Gregory’s autopsy has been completed, and it states that he died of a ligature hanging Nov. 22. His mother says that his death was listed on the campus police website as a body found in the Sigma Chi fraternity house on the San Jose State campus.
Capt. Forester said the case is closed in his office but that the district attorney has requested a copy of the autopsy and all reports connected with the death. “The autopsy and the investigative reports are public record, and any member of the public can pay for a copy,” said Forester.
Forester said Feb. 9 that the manner of Gregory’s death was suicide. But not all the authorities agree. Rev. Johnson, Gregory’s mother, reported Thursday, Jan. 29, that Eric Wong, investigator for the San Jose State University campus police, said the cause of death is “inconclusive.”
Rev. Johnson learned later the same day that Dana Overstreet, the DA’s homicide supervisor, said all documents and reports concerning Gregory Johnson’s death were turned over to her in December of 2008. Then Overstreet retracted her statement in a telephone interview Jan. 29, stating that her department has some papers and documents but not all of them, and she is waiting for the autopsy and toxicology report before making any public statement. Overstreet termed the tragedy a “suspicious death.”
Overstreet confirmed Friday. Feb. 5, that the medical examiner’s responsibility to determine the cause of death is closed and his findings are public record, but the police investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gregory’s death remains open and ongoing.
According to Rev. Johnson, San Jose police said the frat house is part of the university and not under their jurisdiction. Although San Jose State University officials said the frat house is not under the university’s jurisdiction, campus police are investigating.
Gregory’s older brother, Sekou Gilchrist, said he was told by campus police shortly after Gregory’s death that the investigation would be completed in a few days because the case was “cut and dry.” “Those were the words he used,” Gilchrist said.
“I think the investigation was poorly handled,” Rev. Johnson told the Lake County Record-Bee. “I feel (Gregory) wasn’t treated as a human being, let alone a student who was achieving, a popular student who was well on his way to graduation.
“I feel that this has been swept under the rug. I feel that the suspects were treated like witnesses instead of suspects in a hate crime.”
Countered campus police Sgt. Michael Santos: “Ever since this investigation began, there were numerous fraternity members that were interviewed and they will continue to be interviewed until we are satisfied that there is nothing more we can get from them.”
Santos added: “I really feel for the family. As much as possible, we are doing what we can for them. But the information the family is giving us isn’t leading to anything that would lead us to believe that this was foul play.”
On Feb. 9, Gregory's parents, Denise and Gregory Johnson Sr.,
told the story of his suspicious death to a full house at a Black History Month event
sponsored by the San Francisco State University Black Student Union.
The audience was deeply moved.
- Photo: Francisco Da Costa
When Gregory’s parents went to the fraternity house the day after his death, they told the Record-Bee, the scene had already been cleaned and disinfected. They were told that Gregory was found hanging from the basement ceiling with his legs straight out and his buttocks inches from the floor.
“There is not a mark on my child and there is no way he hung there while he was alive,” said Rev. Johnson. “Gregory was 6 feet 2, 197 pounds. They showed me the ceiling where he was found and it wasn't even a good 6 feet high. His father had to duck down inside the room.”
Rev. Johnson questions the cause and manner of death shown on Gregory’s death certificate – suicide by ligature hanging – and has called Cindy, the coroner’s investigator, every day for the results of the autopsy report.
“They ripped my heart out,” remembers Denise. “They told me to accept it” (the suicide). Rev. Johnson and her relatives call everyone they can think of every day and get different messages from the campus police, the coroner’s office and other officials they call.
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, a relative of the Johnsons learned from Claudine, who works nights at the Santa Clara Coroner’s Office, that the autopsy has been completed, but the computer screen is grayed out. However, Cindy, who works at the coroner’s office at the front desk, keeps telling Rev. Johnson that the autopsy report is not ready and asking her to stop calling every day.
Gregory was a sophomore at San Jose State earning As in his classes, studying sports medicine and living at Sigma Chi Fraternity on campus, according to Rev. Johnson. He was also a licensed, ordained Baptist minister.
Rev. Johnson remembers Gregory telling her his clothes were disappearing – stolen – and that fights would break out at the frat house after parties. Campus police computerized crime reports list two batteries, one robbery and fights every week at the Sigma Chi fraternity house during October and November of 2008, according to Rev. Johnson.
When Rev. Johnson went to the frat house to take care of her son’s body and arrange for a funeral, all of her son’s jewelry was missing, including his class ring from Lower Lake High School, where he graduated with honors.
Rev. Johnson said her son’s neck was broken, but she said she saw no marks on it from hanging. Johnson and her older son took pictures of Gregory’s neck. Capt. Forester stated Feb. 9 that he was prohibited by state law from sending out the pictures of Gregory’s neck taken by the medical examiner.
One of Gregory’s friends had moved out of the Sigma Chi fraternity house because of problems, according to Rev. Johnson. Gregory’s friends are afraid to talk. There is tension between the college newspaper and the campus police at times, according to a student journalist.
Gregory’s cell phone had been erased when his sister saw it on the floor of his frat room Nov. 23, when the family came to get what was left of his belongings at the Sigma Chi house. One voice message remained in the phone’s memory; it was recorded at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 22, according to his mother.
Gregory’s parents, Rev. Denise Johnson and Gregory Johnson Sr., think someone at the frat house erased all Gregory’s pictures and withheld the cell phone from the police until the phone was blank.
The extension cord Gregory is alleged to have hanged himself with is not included in the articles of evidence, according to Rev. Johnson. Could the cord have been withheld from the police because of DNA or fingerprints on the cord? Could someone other than Gregory have hanged his body after he was killed and his neck broken?
Members of Gregory’s church, Praises of Zion Baptist Church in Clearlake, agree with his mother that Gregory would never hang himself. “It’s just not in character with who he was,” stated Kevin Victorian.
Gregory’s high school teacher, Ann Nolasco, wrote a letter to the editor of the Record-Bee expressing hope that the truth will come out and lauding Gregory as “an extraordinary young man.” “He was the student body vice president, activities director, a drama student and the school’s athletic trainer,” she wrote. “Greg was a member of the Academic Decathlon Team and was the Lion’s Club regional finalist Speaker of the Year. He was also a member of the school’s wrestling team.
“Greg was very outgoing and loved being around people. He was known for giving the warmest hugs. He was loved by everyone. Greg was not just another student. Greg was a rare and exceptional, well-mannered and amiable individual.
“Greg had so much going for him. He was a successful student with a very bright future ahead of him.”
His teacher concluded: “We do not want his death to be overlooked. May this case remain open until more information is revealed that leads to the truth. We can only hope and pray that anyone who knows any information will come forward.
“Greg will be loved, remembered and deeply missed forever by all of his friends, family and our entire community.”
Rev. Johnson, Gregory’s mother, said she will continue to seek the truth concerning her son’s death until justice is won.
Joan Moss can be reached at joanmoss@att.net. The Bay View appreciates and acknowledges the intensive coverage of this story by Denise Rockenstein for the Lake County Record-Bee; she can be reached at (707) 994-6444, ext. 11, or drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com. Bay View staff also contributed to this story, mainly through selected excerpts from Rockenstein’s work.
Parents Of Gregory Johnson, Jr.: Rev. Denise Johnson & Gregory Johnson, Sr.
On Nov. 22, 2008, Gregory Johnson, Jr. was found hanging from the ceiling of his fraternity house's basement @ San Jose State University...Although there were no ligature marks found on his neck, the authorities quickly ruled out foul play and ruled it a suicide...Also there was a jagged scar found on the back of his head which suggests he sustained blunt force trauma which also points to foul play...Gregory Johnson, Jr. was only 20 years old... He was a brilliant student, an ordained minister and a certified personal fitness instructor who had dreams of becoming a professional sports trainer...He was the only Black student in the San Jose State University Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, the largest and one of the oldest fraternities in North America...He reported that his clothes and jewelry were stolen/missing and fights broke out with him and his frat brothers in the days leading up to his mysterious and untimely death.
