Friday, November 29, 2013

Leigh Touchton Comments on Kendrick Johnson Case

Leigh Touchton
Below are comments made by Leigh Touchton on the Ebony online "news" site.  She has graciously given me her permission to copy her comments here. I find them extremely informative, especially since Ms Touchton actually bothered to put in open records requests and pay for the entire case file. Some of the below is repetitive because she was responding to repetitive ignorance. Read my first blog on Leigh Touchton - there's a lot about this case and the evidence, plus Leigh's letter to Al Sharpton that first sparked my interest in what Leigh had to say about the Kendrick Johnson case.



I have a great deal of admiration for this woman. She was the President of the Valdosta NAACP for two terms - she fought many fights, and from what I can gather, just by doing a bit of research on her, this fight for truth in the Kendrick Johnson case is the only one people of color in Valdosta have fought against her on - I could be wrong, but I've not seen evidence of it. Leigh spoke up when everyone else, media included, was kowtowing to the Johnson family lawyers because she had the facts and she knew better. 

 Of course she was just doing the right thing, but in this day and age doing the right thing is going above and beyond when it comes to exposing a hoax. Leigh has never called this a hoax, that is my word, my feeling. While these lawyers, and the family as well, are calling the school and the law enforcement in Valdosta crooks, the community has to find a way to battle the distrust and disrespect this hoax is perpetrating. How can kids respect their teachers and law enforcement when they are being told all are covering up the murder of a student? Can you imagine how the little kids feel going to school every day in fear they could be killed by someone's special white kid and no one would ever find out what happened?  For no other reason than that, this runaway train has to be stopped. Now two innocent boys are being thrown in just to make it interesting.


In Leigh Touchton's own words:
I am the Lead Investigator for the Valdosta SCLC. I interviewed law enforcement, public officials, school officials, I called both places in Florida where William Anderson used to work, I got his personnel records, I have the 450 page case file, and would really like to publicize some of the incident reports inside it which the family knows all about as well as an arrest record that I am aware of, I have spoken to a school resource officer, I toured the Valdosta Crime Lab 3 times, I've spoken to forensic experts, I toured the gym, I saw evidence documentation for the hard drives from the surveillance cameras, I SAW the cameras, I witnessed a man climb into one of the mats while I was standing there, the 2 of us watching this could not hear him yell for help and this was with ONE mat, whereas the mat Kendrick was in was against the wall and surrounded by 15-20 mats. I stood outside the cadaver storage unit at the Crime Lab, I was educate on the alarms that go off if the unit malfunctions, I spoke to forensic experts whose offices are directly outside the unit, I spoke with blood spatter experts, and I asked questions of both Attorney Chevene King and father Kenneth Johnson on a conference call in July. I followed up on several of their claims and they were not telling the truth. I'd be glad to talk to anyone about my findings. 229-245-1009



Other articles featuring Leigh Touchton:
TOUCHTON SAYS KJ DEATH ‘ACCIDENTAL’
Rose, Touchton believe no cover-up in Kendrick Johnson Case
Lowndes County Incident Reports
Jan ’13 Incident Reports
Crime Lab Report
Mar ’13 Incident Reports
Apr ’13 incident Reports
May ’13 Incident Reports
June ’13 Incident Reports
Call Logs
DA Subpoenas
Family Attorney Correspondence (including independent autopsy)
Clearer copy of independent autopsy
GBI Coroner’s Report
GBI Medical Examiner’s Report (Autopsy)
Property Evidence Forms
Search Warrants