Two civil suits seeking damages against the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department following the murder of a Wittenberg man last year were complicated this week by a court ruling allowing the convicted murderer to also be named as a defendant.
Joshua P. Johnson, 23, 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 on Wednesday 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 creates an ethical question for attorney Jared Redfield, who defended Joshua Johnson in the criminal proceedings and is representing Johnson as well as his mother and stepfather in the civil suits.
Knox-Bauer gave 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 lawsuits contend 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 civil complaints state.
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 seeks 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 seeks more than $250,000 in damages for each, citing loss of companionship, income, earning capacity and mental distress.
The suit contends the couple has lost their ability to maintain an income from farming because they had to sell off their farm equipment and stock to provide legal assistance for Joshua.
It also maintains the incident caused Lori Boris to suffer a setback in her rehabilitation from childhood sexual abuse and caused a setback for Robert Boris, a Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Shawano County Corporation Counsel Tony Kordus said the suits are without merit.
“It’s just a matter of time I think before these cases are ultimately dismissed,” he said.
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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