In 2013, authorities determined soon after being notified of Johnson’s body that he died in a freak accident. They concluded he got stuck upside down in the mat and struggled to breathe while trying to get a shoe that fell inside it.

Johnson’s family wasn’t buying it. They believed someone killed their son, and the crime was covered up by law enforcement and school administrators.

“We live there. We know how this town is. We know how they will lie. We know how they will cover up for one another,” Kendrick’s father, Kenneth Johnson, told Fox 5 Atlanta.

In 2022, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk shared a summary of the incident’s case files. The document states investigators still believe foul play was not involved in Johnson’s death.

Johnson’s family is still not buying. Kenneth and Kendrick’s mother, Jackie Johnson, think the situation is a “cover up.” The family and their representation in the new lawsuit said they plan to “address the materially false information” in Paulk’s synopsis.

“It’s a shame that we have been having to fight for 10 long years and nobody seems to care about Kendrick. He’s just another child that they want to sweep under the rug,” Jackie told Fox 5 Atlanta.

After filing the suit Tuesday, Kenneth explained that an example of “false information” in the case was law enforcement’s statement there was no trauma or significant bruising on Johnson’s body.

“All the evidence they collected contradicts the cause of death on the death certificate as well as the synopsis,” the Johnsons’ lawyer, Jonathan Burrs, said.

The Johnson family and their attorneys say photos of the body taken after its discovery showed damage caused by a weapon like a Taser or stun gun.

“What the Johnsons found was that there was materially false information in that synopsis that could’ve only come from the medical examiner that invented this narrative, and we say invented because there is no evidence to support it,” Burrs added.

The Johnsons argue their son’s body was “butchered” and “mutilated” by the medical examiner who performed his autopsy.

“One retired surgeon declared they had not seen anything remotely resembling the body of Kendrick in more than 43 years from their experience with autopsies,” the family wrote in the suit.

They added they’re ready to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

“They killed the wrong child, but they got the right parents because we are going to continue to fight for Kendrick,” Jackie said.