Ah, but the EMTs report contradicted what the SD said ad the coroner said the SD was negligent in waiting 6 hours to call and compromised the investigation. I posted the links upthread.
So if there is some CYA going on, those parties are not in on it.
An EMT is not a medical doctor, their role at an emergency scene is to give emergency aid in order to stabilize for transport. The bruising he thought he saw was the pooling of blood in Kendrick's jaw area. Kendrick's face was resting on that side (can't remember left or right), when he was found after almost 20 hours of being in that position. At the time the EMT arrived, he could not have known this detail.
Waiting six hours to call the coroner did not "compromise" the investigation (but may have bruised a coroner's ego). The investigation is processed from the outside in. When investigators got to KJ's body, the coroner was called. The coroner's only concern is the body, nothing else. He basically announces death, manner of death, and time of death. In the case of Kendrick Johnson, he was able only to say KJ was dead, which would not have been news to anyone six hours earlier. Because he is an elected official, and not a medical doctor, the coroner sent the body for further investigation.
So to say the
investigation was compromised makes little sense, a cover up makes even less sense. Those are simplyhot button talking points given by the family attorney to the media. The same goes for the EMT report and the newspaper where organs should be. The ME didn't say the scene or the body was compromised, and
she had to give the final report.
The family attorney, Chevene King, reads the EMT report and sees the unofficial notation of bruising. After he reads the completed autopsy report from the GBI, and sees the bruising was not a factor and cause of death deemed an accident, he calls for another autopsy. He needs this death to be a homicide for litigation purposes. The attorney takes the EMT report to his hired, private Pathologist and what is the result? Exactly what the attorney wanted the result to be, backed up by an EMT report - blunt force trauma in the same area noted by the EMT.
What's in it for the Pathologist? Money. What's in it for the government paid ME? Nothing, she makes the same regardless of her findings. I know, I know, she is part of the big conspiracy to cover for some kid whose parents must be extraordinarily connected to higher-ups in the city of Valdosta. The only renegade not involved in the cover up is Bill Watson...obviously they forgot to send him the conspiracy memo.
Con: to persuade (someone) to do or believe something, typically by use of a deception.
The EMT and compromised scene rhetoric served a purpose - immediate and sustained public outrage which puts pressure on officials. When public interest dwindles and the officials move on to other matters, a more sensational bombshell is announced: newspaper in the body cavity (5 months after it was discovered)!
If the DOJ thought this was a cover up they would have opened an investigation - they did not.
All IMO
RIP KJ.
