VALDOSTA – Kenneth and Jackie Johnson are expected to appear in court this morning for a judge to determine if they will be required to pay legal fees to defendants named in a $100 million civil suit the family voluntarily dropped in March.

The parents filed the civil suit in January 2015 which alleged local FBI agent Rick Bell, his two sons and 35 state and local officials either directly caused or covered up the cause of their son’s death.

The body of Kendrick Johnson was found upside down in a vertically-stored gym mat at Lowndes High School in January 2013. A state autopsy ruled the 17-year-old’s death accidental. The Johnson family insists their son died of foul play.

The Johnsons dismissed the action with the intention of refiling at a later date. Since the dismissal, former defendants named in the suit, included the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, Lowndes County Schools and the City of Valdosta, have filed to recover nearly $900,000 in attorney’s fees from the family.

On Wednesday, The Kendrick Johnson Foundation issued a media alert characterizing the hearing as an attempt “to forever silence (Kendrick Johnson’s) parents.”

King also asserted that the defendants’ reimbursement claims were “an astronomical sum” that, if granted, would be a financial burden that would prevent his clients from refiling their civil suit in the future.

The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 Friday morning at the Lowndes County Judicial Complex.