Rev. Markel Hutchins Sues Estate of Kathryn Johnston for Nearly $500,000, Claims He Had a Verbal Agreement with Sarah Dozier

Rev. Markel Hutchins' image gets a second black eye after he sues the estate of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, who was killed in a botched police raid on her northwest Atlanta home, alleges her niece Sarah Dozier verbally agreed to pay him 10% of any money awarded by city of Atlanta.

Rev. Markel Hutchins (Facebook)

Rev. Markel Hutchins, who once ran against civil rights stalwart John Lewis, is in the news again and, quite frankly, it's a sad turn of events in a seemingly tempestuous life. He is suing the estate of Kathryn Johnston, the elderly Atlanta woman who was killed in a botched police raid in her northwest Atlanta home. According to the AJC, Hutchins, who was the spokesman for the 92 year old woman's family, is suing her estate for nearly $500,000. He alleges that there was a verbal agreement that he would get 10 percent of the $4.9 million awarded to the estate, represented by Johnston's niece, Sarah Dozier, by the city of Atlanta. Yeah, we can see quite clearly who Markel Hutchins' god is -- money.

Under the structure of the 2010 settlement, the estate got $3 million immediately and will get another $1.9 million in fiscal year 2012.

"I served as the family and Estate's spokesperson, strategist, advisor and consultant with a clear understanding of how I would be compensated," Hutchins said in a statement Thursday night. "My staff and I holistically managed the public and private efforts that made the significant settlement possible and yielded Mrs. Johnston's heirs millions of dollars. I literally risked my own safety and security to advance the cause of the Estate of Kathryn Johnston and expended considerable resources of my own with no reimbursement or remuneration to date." Source

Look, I don't know where this will end up or how, but it sends the wrong message, again, about Markel Hutchins, that he's all about money. Since he lost against John Lewis he became embroiled in the mess with the SCLC and the power struggle against Bernice King, the daughter of the group's founder, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So much so that he welded the doors of the Atlanta office shut. He was eventually smacked down by a court of law, but the stain he left with that mess is indelible. So now he's suing the estate of this woman, who died in a hail of bullets during a raid on her home. So, all that he did for the family wasn't from the goodness of his heart, but because of the prospects of the family making money from her death. Shameful.