Two civil lawsuits that sought damages against the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department following the murder of a Wittenberg man last year came to an end Thursday after attorneys for both sides agreed to their dismissal.
The attorneys stipulated to a dismissal with prejudice, meaning the suits can never be brought again.
“Shawano County has stated from the beginning that these cases had no merit whatsoever and should not have been filed,” Shawano County Corporation Counsel Tony Kordus said. “With the filing of the stipulation and orders for dismissal, that statement has proved very accurate.”
Joshua P. Johnson, 22, was committed in December to life in a mental institution for killing his father, Donald P. Johnson, 53, at their Wittenberg home on Feb. 21, 2012. Johnson had been found not guilty due to insanity.
Wrongful death suits were subsequently filed by Joshua Johnson and by his mother and stepfather, Lori and Robert Boris, maintaining the murder would not have happened if the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department had responded appropriately to a pair of 9-1-1 calls made the night before.
Taylor County Judge Ann Knox-Bauer last month granted Shawano County’s motion to have the two civil suits consolidated as a single case, and to have Joshua Johnson listed along with the Sheriff’s Department as a defendant in the wrongful death suit brought by Lori and Robert Boris.
The ruling created an ethical question for attorney Jared Redfield, who defended Joshua Johnson in the criminal proceedings and was representing Johnson as well as his mother and stepfather in the civil suits.
Knox-Bauer had given Redfield until Dec. 1 to respond to how he would address the potential ethical conflicts given that Redfield would be representing Johnson as a plaintiff in a case in which Johnson is now being sued by other plaintiffs.
The Sheriff’s Department was represented in the civil suits by attorney Andrew Smith.
The lawsuits contended that a Sheriff’s Department dispatcher did not take seriously a call from Joshua Johnson in which he claimed to have been raped by his father. Johnson eventually terminated the call, according to the civil complaints.
A second 9-1-1 call was made by Donald Johnson, who told the dispatcher his son was “upset, hallucinating, hearing voices and had accused him of rape,” the complaints stated.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Johnson home after the second call, but, according to the complaints, they ignored warning signs and took Donald Johnson’s word that he and his son could resolve the situation themselves.
The complaints argue that the younger Johnson should have been removed from the home at that time because of the “known and compelling danger” of the situation.
Joshua Johnson later made a third call to 9-1-1, informing the dispatcher he had killed his father.
Joshua Johnson’s civil suit sought more than $400,000 in damages for loss of wages and mental distress. He is incarcerated at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison.
The suit filed by Lori and Robert Boris sought more than $250,000 in damages for each, citing loss of companionship, income, earning capacity and mental distress.
In an interview after Johnson’s commitment hearing in December, Shawano County Sheriff Randy Wright defended the handling of the 9-1-1 calls.
Wright said protocol was followed and deputies left the scene only after consulting with the Department of Community Programs, which makes the decision on whether there should be an emergency commitment.
In another interview after the commitment hearing, District Attorney Greg Parker addressed the first 9-1-1 call, saying the dispatcher tried to get information from Joshua Johnson to determine who he was and where he was, so deputies could come and talk to him.
“He just wasn’t willing to give them any information,” Parker said.
Recordings of the 9-1-1 calls were sealed by the court during the course of the homicide case.
Doubts were raised during the course of the case as to whether the abuse Joshua Johnson alleged at the hands of his father ever took place. Doctors who testified suggested the allegations may have been part of the fantasy the younger Johnson came to believe about his father due to the voices he began hearing several months before the murder.
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