Total Injury

A mentally disabled black man who suffered severe brain injuries after four white men beat him in 2003 was recently awarded a $9 million personal injury settlement by a jury in Linden, Texas. An Associated Press story detailed the disturbing circumstances surrounding the injuries sustained by now 46-year-old Billy Ray Johnson, who had the mental capacities of a child at the time of the attack. Johnson was lured to a pasture party, given alcohol and taunted by the four white men before being beaten and suffering a severe concussion and bleeding in the brain. Johnson was later found unconscious on a fire ant mound and is now permanently in a nursing home because of his injuries.

The AP story detailed that attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center brought the lawsuit on behalf of Johnson against defendants James Cory Hicks, Christopher Colt Amox, Dallas Chadwick Stone and John Wesley Owens. Following a four-day trial, a jury of 11 white people and one black person found Hicks and Amox responsible for Johnson’s personal injuries. The center said in a statement that Stone and Owens previously reached confidential agreements.

Prior to this civil lawsuit, these men accused of assaulting Johnson had been sentenced to probation and jail time during their criminal cases. Amazingly and very unfortunately, none of these men served more than 60 days in jail for their deplorable actions! Jurors acquitted Amox and Hicks of serious felony charges and rather convicted them of a lesser charge. The story added that Stone and Owens pleaded guilty to the charge of “injury to a disabled individual by omission.”