BRUNSWICK, Ga. — June 22, 2026 — A 64-page federal civil rights lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court alleges a sweeping conspiracy by former Glynn County District Attorney Jacquelyn Lee Johnson, current Glynn County Sheriff Emmett “Neal” Jump, and other law enforcement officials to manipulate investigations, fabricate charges, and suppress evidence against political rivals and targeted individuals.
The lawsuit — Powell v. Jump et al., Case No. 2:26-cv-00058-LGW-BWC — names Johnson, Jump, former Camden County Sheriff James C. Proctor, former McIntosh County Sheriff Stephen D. Jessup, and multiple prosecutors and staffers as defendants. It seeks damages under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 for alleged constitutional violations including conspiracy, malicious prosecution, and evidence suppression.
For one Brunswick family, the lawsuit reads like a blueprint of what they have been alleging for nearly a decade.
“The Same Office. The Same Playbook.”
Kenneth Adkins, 66, is serving a 35-year sentence at Augusta State Medical Prison following a 2017 Glynn County conviction on child molestation charges. For ten years — since his arrest without bond in 2016 — Adkins and his wife Stormy have maintained that former DA Johnson’s office suppressed exculpatory evidence that would have proven his innocence.
“The federal lawsuit filed today names the exact same people we have been naming for years,” said Stormy Adkins, coordinator of the Kenneth Adkins Freedom Project. “Jacquelyn Johnson. The Glynn County Sheriff’s Office. Prosecutors who manipulated evidence and targeted people they wanted to destroy. We have the police reports. We have the trial transcripts. We have sworn testimony that evidence was hidden. And now a federal court is being asked to decide whether this was a pattern, not a one-time mistake.”
The Letter That Never Reached the Jury
At the center of Adkins’s post-conviction fight is a resignation letter dated May 23, 2010 — a document that, according to Brunswick Police Department records, was delivered to detectives on November 15, 2011, and transferred to the District Attorney’s office. The letter establishes that Adkins did not leave First Jordan Grove Baptist Church until after the female complainant in his case turned sixteen — a timeline that would have undermined the prosecution’s theory on multiple counts.
The letter was never disclosed to Adkins’s defense. During closing argument, the prosecutor told the jury there was “no evidence” supporting Adkins’s claim that he resigned in 2010 — while the document sat in law enforcement files.
At Adkins’s motion for new trial hearing in April 2022, Sgt. Roy Blackstock testified under oath that the full investigative file had been transferred to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Kingsland office. He further testified that when he attempted to retrieve the file through an open records request, he was informed it had “gone missing.”
Three agencies — the Brunswick Police Department, the Glynn County District Attorney’s Office, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation — have since refused or failed to produce the complete file in response to open records requests.
“Today’s federal lawsuit alleges that Johnson and her co-defendants conspired to manipulate investigations and target individuals for political and personal reasons,” Stormy Adkins said. “If a federal court finds that pattern existed, it validates everything we have documented in Kenneth’s case: evidence collected, evidence transferred, evidence suppressed, and then — when someone asks for it — evidence ‘missing.'”
A Pastor, a Prison, and a Pattern
Bishop James Brooks, who served as Adkins’s assistant pastor at First Jordan Grove and later at Greater Dimensions Christian Fellowship, said the timeline evidence has been clear from the beginning.
“We left First Jordan Grove together in May 2010 — Kenneth, myself, and a group of members,” Brooks said. “Greater Dimensions didn’t exist before that. The G Street location wasn’t secured until after we left. The prosecution told the jury there was no evidence of this timeline. But they had the letter. They had it in 2011. And now, with this federal lawsuit, we see that hiding evidence from people they wanted to convict was not unique to Kenneth’s case. It was a pattern.”
Dee Rogers, a ten-year member of First Jordan Grove who followed Adkins to Greater Dimensions, said the community deserves answers.
“When evidence that could exonerate a man is in police files, then in the DA’s files, then in the GBI’s files, and then suddenly nobody can find it — that’s not a coincidence,” Rogers said. “That’s a system protecting itself. And if today’s lawsuit proves that Johnson and these sheriffs were running a conspiracy to do this to multiple people, then every case they touched needs to be reopened — starting with Kenneth’s.”
A Man Fighting for His Life
Adkins’s physical condition has deteriorated during his decade of incarceration. In March 2023, he was diagnosed with stage 3 head and neck cancer. He underwent 35 rounds of radiation to his face and neck, four rounds of chemotherapy, and the surgical extraction of all 26 remaining teeth to enable treatment. In January 2024, a routine PET scan revealed metastatic cancer to his lungs, requiring additional radiation.
His ability to speak has been severely compromised. He is preparing to file a state habeas corpus petition and a motion for appointment of counsel, arguing that his medical incapacity renders him unable to advocate for himself in court.
“Kenneth has been in a cage for ten years — no bond, no presumption of innocence, no fair chance to present the evidence that proves the prosecution’s timeline was false,” Stormy Adkins said. “Today’s lawsuit doesn’t just help Kenneth’s case. It asks the question that Glynn County has been avoiding for a decade: how many other people were convicted with hidden evidence, manufactured timelines, and a conspiracy of silence?”
The Federal Lawsuit and the Open Records Fight
The Powell v. Jump lawsuit, filed by plaintiffs John Powell and Brian Scott, alleges that Johnson and the named sheriffs conspired to indict Powell and Scott, cripple the Glynn County Police Department, and eliminate political rivals. The complaint references allegations spanning from the Sasser case through the present day.
For the Adkins family, the lawsuit represents both validation and opportunity.
“We have been knocking on every door — media, innocence projects, attorneys, courts — for ten years,” Stormy Adkins said. “We have the forensic authentication of the resignation letter. We have the sworn affidavit from the complainant correcting her trial testimony. We have the police reports proving the letter was in their possession. And we have three agencies refusing to give us the file. If today’s federal lawsuit proves this was a conspiracy and not incompetence, then Kenneth’s case is not just a wrongful conviction. It is evidence of a criminal enterprise.”
The Kenneth Adkins Freedom Project is prepared to provide all exhibits, transcripts, and source materials to journalists, investigators, and oversight authorities examining the allegations in the federal complaint.