“It was a major victory not only for the Johnson family but all the community that is seeking the truth in this real-life murder mystery,” says Crump, who helped focus national attention on the Trayvon Martin case.
His comments came just moments after a closed-door meeting at the court, where Crump and attorney Chevene King sat around the table with attorneys for the sheriff’s office and the school district.Southern Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Harry Jay Altman presided over the talks and by the end of the meeting ruled that video taken at the Lowndes High School gym on the day Kendrick Johnson died should be released.
“The judge signed an order that directed the sheriff to produce the material we requested in our open records act, that includes video and unredacted interviews of students around the time they were investigating Kendrick’s death,” says King, in an interview with theGrio after the conference.He went onto say the lawyers for the sheriff’s office and the school district argued there were certain laws that did not permit them to release the footage but in the end the court order sided with the family. Raw Video Video with Commentary by Attorney King
Benjamin Crump is taking credit for getting the gym video released that recorded the comings and goings of students the hours surrounding Johnson's disappearance. The problem is, none of the attorneys for the Johnson family filed to have the tapes released, the lawyer for the Valdosta School Board filed the motion, just as was written in an earlier blog her, the court hearing was set for the end of October - this is the end of October.
October 18 Blog: Attorney King and Mr. Johnson told Touchton they needed money to make legal filings in order to obtain the video. Not true. As a result of Touchton's interview, and likely out of frustration that attorney King was not going to file a court order but rather continue to lie and trash the school, the school attorney and the sheriff's attorney set up a hearing in front of a judge. It is scheduled for the end of October, 2013.
Benjamin Crump is despicable....but he knows how to twist the truth just enough to get by with it. This will hamper the lawyers, not help them - there is nothing on the tape to show Kendrick was murdered, as the lawyers have alluded to. I'm positive they wanted to milk this for all it was worth without really having the video tape become public. If the media wants to show they are not biased in this, another racially charged case, they will get a copy immediately and air it.
