Kendrick Johnson's family sues funeral home

(CNN) -- The family of Kendrick Johnson -- the south Georgia teen found dead in his high school gym a year ago -- has filed a lawsuit against the funeral home that handled his remains, alleging negligence and fraud.

The lawsuit revolves around what the owner and employees of Harrington Funeral Home in Valdosta, Georgia, knew about the state of the young man's body.

Johnson's parents were shocked to learn in June, when they ordered a second autopsy, that the young man's organs were missing and had been replaced with newspaper.

An investigation by a state board found that the handling of the body by the funeral home did not violate the law.

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Roy Copeland, a lawyer for Harrington Funeral Home and its owner, Antonio Harrington, said his client had not been served as of Wednesday and could not comment on something he has not seen.

In the lawsuit, filed January 31 and amended Wednesday, the family alleges that not only did the funeral home mishandle the organs, it disposed of them to thwart an investigation into Johnson's cause of death.

"This lawsuit challenges the morally despicable, fraudulent, unlawful and unfair business practices" of Harrington Funeral Home, the court document states.

Antonio Harrington "intentionally, willfully and secretly" desecrated Johnson's remains, the lawsuit claims.

It was a fraud intended to mislead and make it difficult to establish the manner and cause of death, the lawsuit alleges.

The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office has repeatedly stood by its original determination that Johnson died by accident after getting caught up reaching for his shoe that fell inside a rolled-up gym mat. CNN examined the 522-page police file and found that investigators spoke to 111 people, including 18 on the day Johnson's body was found.

But the disbelieving Johnson family pushed in court, leading to a judge's decision May 1 to grant their request to exhume their son's body for an independent autopsy at their expense.

It was during that second autopsy that the missing organs were noticed. The doctor who carried out that autopsy determined that Johnson suffered blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues, "consistent with inflicted injury," challenging the authorities' ruling that the death was accidental.

The lawsuit alleges that Harrington not only was aware that organs were missing, but "actively undertook measures to dispose of said organs in an effort to interfere" with the investigation.

Source: Kendrick Johnson's family sues funeral home

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Coca-Cola to Let People Make Its Drinks at Home

Coca-Cola is looking to tap into a new market, with plans to let people make its sodas and other drinks at home.

The world's biggest beverage maker said Wednesday that it's buying a 10 percent stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. for $1.25 billion as part of an agreement to bring its familiar brands into the fast-growing at-home market. Green Mountain is known for its single-serve coffee makers, but is developing a machine for cold drinks as well.

The deal comes as SodaStream makes an aggressive push to make its at-home carbonation machines a fixture in U.S. kitchens. The Israeli company has touted its machines as a cheaper, more environmentally friendly alternative to buying Coke and Pepsi drinks. It advertised in the past two Super Bowls, with its latest ad starring actress Scarlett Johansson. Although it's in just 1 percent of U.S. homes so far, SodaStream has noted that it's in as many as 25 percent of homes in Sweden.

Investors sent Green Mountain's stock soaring and SodaStream's lower after the deal was announced.

In a call with reporters, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent seemed to play down the idea that the deal might eat into sales of its ready-to-drink bottles and cans.

"This is not a zero-sum game," Kent said, after saying that the Green Mountain machine represents a "real game-changing innovation."

Coca-Cola's decision to team up with Green Mountain also comes as soda consumption in the U.S. and other developed nations continues to decline, in part because of the growing number of options people have in the beverage aisle.

Green Mountain's "Keurig Cold" machine is expected to roll out in the company's 2015 fiscal year, which begins this fall. The company says the machine will let people make sodas, sports drinks and other beverages with the touch of a button. Like its coffee machines, the cold machine would use pods to make a variety of drinks.

Jonas Feliciano, a beverage industry analyst for market researcher Euromonitor International, noted that Green Mountain has said its machine will not require CO2 carbonation cylinders that need to be replaced. The inconvenience of having to replace the CO2 cylinders in SodaStream's machines has been seen as a barrier to the company's potential.

As such, Feliciano said the potential of Coke's deal with Green Mountain was "even beyond SodaStream."

Green Mountain CEO Brian Kelley said during the call with reporters that the company plans to "do with cold beverages what has been done with hot tea and coffee."

Before joining Green Mountain in late 2012, Kelley had been a high-ranking executive at Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola and Green Mountain said they have signed a 10-year agreement. As part of that deal, Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, will acquire nearly 16.7 million new Green Mountain shares. Green Mountain, based in Waterbury, Vt., said it plans to use proceeds to buy back stock and fund expenses related to Keurig Cold.

Coca-Cola shares were up 1.4 percent at $38.12 in after-hours trading. Green Mountain's shares soared 42 percent. Shares in SodaStream International Ltd. were down 6 percent.

Source: Coca-Cola to Let People Make Its Drinks at Home

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