Investigation Continues In Lawyer's Death
Prosecutors say the case against a Farmington Hills woman accused in the death of her husband is far from over, even though charges have been dropped.
WWJ spoke Thursday with Oakland County Prosecutor, Jessica Cooper who said her office may have dropped murder and other charges against Laura Johnson, but investigators have not dropped the investigation and search for evidence.
"We did what we are duty bound and ethically bound to do, but do I believe that there is something more, oh yeah. I definitely believe that when someone performs surgery upon someone who is diabetic and they are not licensed and they are not medical then we had got something
other than "surgery,'" Cooper said.
Laura Johnson was accused of killing her husband Lloyd Johnson and practicing medicine without a license after police found surgical instruments, bloody bedding and human tissue in their home.
"This is not CSI. I think part of what we are doing is dealing with that syndrome -- we can't do it during a commercial break. We are talking about very complicated and complex medical issues. It's not unusual for a medical examiner to give us a preliminary finding and then later on find something else. That's not unusual. What is unusual is that it is done within the context of a very bizarre case," Cooper said.
On Tuesday, medical examiner L.J. Dragovic said Johnson's death was not a homicide. Dragovic ruled the death "accidental," caused by an open wound on his lower back from an old boating injury that hadn't healed. Dragovic noted additional factors -- Johnson weighed 413 pounds and had diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis and other ailments.
In asking a judge to dismiss the charges, assistant prosecutor Paul Walton said Lloyd Johnson, although unable to speak, nodded affirmatively when asked at Botsford Hospital if his wife had performed surgery on him.
"The patient's father, mother as well as son believe that the wife is trying to intentionally harm the patient by ... giving him extra medication as well as performing unnecessary procedures,'' Walton said, quoting a medical report.
Outside court Wednesday, the prosecutor said he doesn't believe Laura Johnson intended to kill her husband but the second-degree murder charge is appropriate when authorities find a "disregard for human life.''
Walton said it's sometimes filed, for example, in cases of death caused by a drunken driver.
"You have a victim that has compromised health,'' Walton said of Lloyd Johnson. "You have an individual who has committed some type of act that furthers the deterioration of health. ... There was a tremendous amount of loss of blood.''
Johnson's lawyer, John Williams, said she had provided wound care for two years and was "vindicated'' by the medical examiner's findings.
"We're relieved it's over,'' Williams said.
(Copyright 2010 by WWJ Radio. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
