User:Deshon Johnson 22

Deshon Johnson Born: March 5 Education: Montclair High School, Kean University and Essex County College Parent: Naomi

Sibling: Raye

Deshon Johnson (March 5, 1991) was a 22-year-old Mixed Race young adult from Montclair New Jersey, who was purposely run over twice then dragged in Bloomfield, New Jersey, by Coach USA Haitian bus driver Wilson Romain operating New Jersey Transit bus 709. Deshon Johnson was on his way to work at Home Depot in Clifton, NJ. Wikipedia

On the morning of Wednesday, July 18, Deshon Johnson was coming from the Seven-Eleven convenience store, which was located cross street from the bus stop on Broad Street, Bloomfield NJ.

Romaine, a bus driver for Coach USA operating an NJ Transit bus speeding, saw Deshon flagging him to stop so he can get aboard the bus to go to work at Home-depot. Several minutes later, the bus driver jumped the handicap curb running Deshon over twice-running him over his head, chest then dragged him 50 to 100 feet to the water Brooke on Bay Avenue.

Romaine was not going to stop the bus until people on the bus scream for him to stop. The bus driver claimed he did not see him and put on a stage play role by hit his head on the bus so he will not be charged with murder. His performance prevented him from going to jail and getting his CDL licenses back. Romaine fabricated sworn under oath in his disposition about not having a bad driving record and more.

The police fabricated- said there was no evidence to refute Deshon's mother's claim of the bus driver speeding prohibited them from arresting or charging him. The police officer claimed that the three witnesses stated the bus driver was not speeding, nor did the driver saw the young man. Be known to them, Exxon gas station across the street shows that Romaine was speeding, and the bus went up twice. Also, there is a video that shows Romaine get up to demonstrated he saw Deshon. Essex County Prosecutor Detective Mike Booker and lawyer Michael Tuzzio interjected; said to Romaine, remember you did not see anyone. And it was out of his control that it was nothing he could have done to prevent killing Deshon.

The Chief Assistance Prosecutor Thomas S. Fennel team never called Deshon's mother after the Bloomfield Police turn over Deshon's homicide case. Deshon's mother and his best friend's mother went to the prosecutor seeking for answers. Thomas told Deshon's mother, aunt, and friend's mother that they were going to close the case because the witness told Naomi's son was chasing the bus-jumping up and down banging on the bus using two hands, so they are going to close the case.

After local media focused on the incident, the prosecutor announces to Deshon's then-attorney Brad Schenerman that they are going to take the case to Grand Jury, which is a secret hearing close to the public. Brad hired a criminal attorney by the name Gerald M SalutiJr., to be the advocate between Deshon's mother and Essex County Prosecutor to make the bus driver charged for vehicular homicide.

Needless to say, that Gerald did not live up to his word, so they closed Deshon's case, and until this day, Deshon's mother does not know what information was submitted to the Grand Jury. Nor did she ever receive a court doc—number for her son's case. Naomi wrote in a request for the information to be giving to her, August 2019, as of today, she never received a response.

Biography

== Deshon was born in Newark, New Jersey, and attended both Mount Hebron Middle School, Montclair High School, Kean University, and Essex County College. Deshon was always a remarkable, intelligent person since his early years of education. From kindergarten, he was chosen to be placed in gifted and talented classes. In Elementary School, he was on the honor roll, Middle School he received honor roll and High School he was in the honor society. At the time of the murder, Deshon was in college at Essex County College; he worked at Home-Depot, he was an entrepreneur and a recording independent hip-hop/rap artist, getting ready to be signed to a label. Unfortunately, that is never going to happen since Wilson Romine robbed him of his career success. ==

== Following Deshon's death, protests were held in Bloomfield, NJ, which should have been nationwide rally and march. In August 2012, students at his high school and colleges partook in the protest in support of him. An online petition calling for a full investigation and prosecution of Romain garnered only 821 signatures. I believe if it went nationwide, it would have been more signatures. ==

== It has been recorded that there was a lot of racism, poor investigation conduct by Essex County Prosecutor New Jersey, biased, conflict of interest, and political favoritism prevented for Deshon's case being swept under the rug. ==

== Also, in August, the media coverage surrounding Deshon's death became the first story of 2012 to be featured on the Star Ledgers front page. The former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, refused to appoint a task force to examine the state's self-defense laws. ==

== The local media, transit spokesperson, scrutinized Deshon's life. The name Deshon was being tarnished by Coach USA spokesperson and few white citizens on CNN online news, Bloomfield Patch, Montclair Patch, News 12 online, and more. ==

== More than 1,000 people attended the viewing of his remains the day before his funeral, which was held in August 2012 in Montclair, New Jersey Church. ==

Today, Naomi is trying to work with the museum to have a memorial dedicated to Deshon at a Historical Museum.

Deshon was born in 1991 in Newark, New Jersey, to Naomi. Naomi raised her son by herself. At the time of the murder, Naomi was recovering from a deadly Bloomfield New Jersey police car chase, Wednesday, July 18, 2007, which left her to be disabled. Before the accident, Naomi was a Teacher, Job Developer, and Employment Specialist.

When Deshon was 17 years old, he cared for his mother by cooking, house chores, washing clothing, and being her chauffeur. Due to Naomi, suffered with nerves damages which cause her to have tremors on her right side.

Deshon enjoyed drawing, writing songs, skateboarding, and running his online blog. He advertises on his blog, basic landscaping, notarized documents, and camp counselor to earn his own money. Deshon was involved in various activities, like wrestling for his high school, choruses, art, after school education enhancement course, karate, and a Shaolin.

Deshon's former art teacher said he had been one of the best artists in her class, and he should persuade an art career. His music teacher said Deshon was a good singer and he should pursue a singing career.

Deshon was on the wrestling team while in high school since he was 14, and at the age of seven, he took up martial arts. During his years in high school, he volunteered at the Good Well to feed the homeless on the holidays.

Montclair High School Secretary said he was a shy child and always walked worn his hat that matches his outfit and headphones on listening to music. Deshon's friend said he is always telling jokes around family and people he feels close to but not with other people. He is not a talkative person. His friends said they all hung out outside, telling jokes with Deshon the night before his death, said that he and Deshon had been like brothers growing up. He recalled that Deshon had been very skilled at playing computer games, skateboarding, repairing, and riding skateboards and bikes. Deshon's aunt said her nephew had often stayed over visiting her family. She also noted that Deshon was fond of wearing headphones listing to his music and rapping.

Deshon had wanted to rap and perform on stage, and in mid-2009, he started performer at several location rap battling and performing at underground clubs or local radio stations.

According to people and customers at Home-Depot, where Deshon worked at said he was a polite young man." Also, he was consciously aware of his surroundings that he will pull his friends back when he sees a bus driver speeding.

=== Deshon's later teenage years === When Deshon started high school, his goal of being a lawyer was put aside in favor of a music career. Deshon attended Langston Hughes from Kindergarten to third grade in East Orange, NJ. He transferred to North Eastern Elementary School NJ in the middle of third grade; after graduated from his elementary school, he attended Mount Hebron Middle School. After that, I went to Montclair High School. While in his third year in high school he majors in pre-law, up until graduating out of high school. Deshon's ninth-grade teacher, who taught him, three classes of pre-law, chosen him to go to Howard University to speak on behalf of the Montclair law department. His teacher said he chosen him because he was well articulated and was a well-behaved student, who passed all his classes. According to another teacher at Montclair High School, math was his favorite subject, and she said she never saw Deshon show disrespect. Some students at Montclair High School and local newspaper media compared Deshon's lousy death investigation by the prosecutor like Trayvon Martin. After Deshon graduated from High School, he signs up to Tempol University in Philadelphia to study pre-law, and Delaware University had offered him an Academic Scholarship to attend their University. Unfortunately. Deshon decline both school because he wanted to stay close to his mother after he learn of his mother life threaten car accident that left her disable. He refused to leave his mother in the condition that the Bloomfield police chase left her. Deshon applied to Montclair University and Kean University where he was accepted to both University. Kean University accepted him for the fall semester and Montclair University accepted him for the Spring semester. Due to Deshon's misfortunate, she was unable to pay for her son's college because she was layoff from her job after her car accident.

Deshon's mother had him transferred to Essex County College in West Orange, NJ, instead of going to the college Newark campus because it had approximately 2,700 students. Naomi said that her son had top achievement performance in school. She transferred him because she thought that Essex County West Caldwell campus was better, and she wanted him to maintain his high GPA with less distraction. Naomi felt like Essex County College in Newark, NJ was like high school with a lot of distraction and not enough learning,

At the time of Romaine horrifically running this honor roll student down, he was preparing for his music video on Thursday, July 19, and he was getting ready to be signed by a record label. Deshon also was working to take care of his mother, running his entertainment blog, performing in the Tri-State area, and preparing to go back to college to finish his last semester. He was few credits away from graduating out of college in 2013, but Romain made sure that was not going to happen. In May 2013, Deshon was awarded his Posthumanism diploma in Business Finance.

=== Deshon Social Media and People Comments ===

Deshon, known on Twitter by his music stage name and tagline "Scmnoneillah," posted thousands of tweets for months, according to his Twitter page. Deshon tweeted his last message recruiting people to be a part of his music video five hours before he was run over twice, then dragged in July 2012.

According to the Star Ledges, Deshon's "digital footprint" portrayed him as having a sense of humor and a preoccupation with music and a working young man who enjoys living his life to the fullest.

Deshon also enjoyed making jokes on Twitter about different topics and posted his music video on YouTube.

He had excerpts from his music video remix like ''Hands on The Wheels and Motivation'', which both were remixed from established music artists. Deshon liked rap music and tweeted about Kelly Rowland, The Game, School Q, and other music artists.

Deshon did not have a violent nature about himself; he was always willing to help people. He was a proper manner young man who loved his mother, family, and friends. You will see some of his pictures online with a beautiful soul and a playful spirit that makes people laugh. You find photos online with him and his mother that shows a tight binding between the two. In his music, you can hear a young man rapping about he does not care about the money for himself. He just wants to make money to take care of his mother. Now that dream was stolen from this son and his mother with no justice. During the incident, the Essex County Prosecutor never requested a copy of Romain cellphone records or did a blood test to see if he was on any influence of drugs or alcohol on the day. He killed Deshon. Romaine attorney Michael Tuzzio took the driver the next day for blood work. In Romaine and the witness deposition, Michael made stereotypical references about Deshon's hairstyle choice. He was trying to conjure up negative connotations when he aloo that Deshon was some type of thug because he has worn dreadlocks.

Friends of Deshon, who had known him from Montclair High School, Kean University, and Essex County College, corresponded with him over Twitter, said Deshon was not prone to violence. There were customers from his job at Home-Depot who wrote that Deshon was a well-manner person who did not say much.

One friend said he was the "quiet person in their group" type of guy: "he'd rather walk away from arguments or fights.' Trying to be the peacemaker. "She also said that she had never seen Deshon unaware of his surroundings; if anybody was not aware of their surrounding was her because he pulled her back when a bus was trying to hit her. His other friends said, Deshon will never run after public transportation, he prefers to wait for the next one regardless of how long it takes because your life and safety is essential. He told his mother and aunt the same thing when they were running to catch the train to get onto their connected flight.

A friend from college who had known him since middle school said he was funny and had liked to joke around and make people laugh.

== Main article: Mowed Down by Coach USA/NJ Transit Bus Driver ==

Naomi said that she asked her son to come with her to the hospital for his grandmother's eye operation a month before his death. She said the day of the procedure and her son's death, an inner voice told her to call Deshon, but she did not because she was running late. The next day Deshon was over a friend spending the night and the voice told her call her son to come home but her mother talked her into no calling him. Naomi's mother told her to give him some space and freedom.

On the morning of Deshob's horrific death of her son, she was at the hospital with her mother, sister, and brother-in-law. Deshon had left Seven-Eleven to buy a sandwich and vitamin water to make change for the bus so he can go to work. As it was time for Deshon to catch the bus, Wilson Romaine, a Coach USA bus driver operating an NJ Transit bus, used the bus as a weapon to kill Deshon by speeding jumping the curb running him over twice then dragged him. Romain ignores all the safety rules taught to him as a professional bus driver by Coach USA to prevent for killing anyone. Romain claimed he did not see Deshon in the video interview then he said he did see his victim. There is no way the bus driver could not see his victim knocking hard at the front door; eventually, he was never charged in Deshon's death.

== Aftermath and media discourse ==

=== 2012 === Deshon's mother was upset that an arrest had not been made in her son's death. Deshon's best friend's mother, who saw of, an attorney who won a 5 million settlement for Mercede whose legs was run over by an NJ Transit bus driver, his name was Brad Scherman, a civil lawyer from Newark, New Jersey. Brad retained Gerald Sutali, a criminal lawyer to help with the Deshon case to be an advocate to ensure they will prosecute the driver for vehicular homicide. Brad also promise Naomi that he will approach several national media contacts about covering the incident and August 2012 protest. Over the next few days, the lawyer only has gotten Fios news to cover the event, but Deshon's friend manages to get Bloomfield Patch, Montclair Patch, and Barrieted to cover the protest.

On August 8, Naomi, created a petition on Change.org to get a Deshon law sponsor and demanding that authorities prosecute Wilson Romain. Sadly, to say, Naomi was unable to get the numbers up to 1,000 yet alone to 10, 000.

Within the months, Brad announces he made plans to go golfing and lunch with NJ Transit/Coach USA lawyer Michael Tuzzio. Then he started going on how they live in the same area from one another. Then he started accusing Deshon of his demises, saying he was chasing the bus. From that point on, Brad and Gerald began to do so much of wrong things to damage Deshon's name and trying to make money without doing a faithful representation. The mission on Deshon's case to go viral and hit international news plummet.

Not only did the lawyer's bail on her with media coverage, but they also did not represent her during the meeting with the Essex County Prosecutor decision in closing the case. Brad or Gerald left her out to defend herself when she went into a tremor attacked. When Deshon's best friends went to get the case file and fired the crook lawyers, Brad revealed that they're where a lot of corruption/cover-up involved in Naomi's son's case. Naomi had to start all over to find a lawyer who was for fighting for justice not corruption. A few months, someone referred lawyer Brian Curley to her, who was a Business Lawyer. Brian sought out other firms to help him with the case, which he was doing good. Then he started going down the same route as the other two attorneys. Brian stated fabricating to her and hired a retired Middlesex Judge by the name of Lawrence Lawson, who mentally torment her, leaving gruesome images about her son's remain spread in the road. Once again, Naomi received poor representation from that lawyer, she sought out help from a friend in the law profession. He had someone to take a look at Deshon's case and told her to change attorney from a big firm. Naomi, retain her fourth attorney, then once again the disloyalty started over again.

I think Deshon's transit death and prosecutor corruption could be a situation where the death of one person could trigger a reevaluation of society, and recast the justice system and the culture.
 * 1)  Patch https://patch.com/new-jersey/montclair/deshon-johnson-receives-posthumous-degree
 * 2)  https://www.change.org/p/stop-reckless-aggressive-and-rude-bus-drivers-from-carelessly-taking-young-innocent-lives-like-deshon-johnson
 * 3)  https://baristanet.com/2012/07/remembering-montclairs-deshon-l-johnson/
 * 4)  http://soulality.blogspot.com/2018/09/shocking-truth-about-deshon-johnson.html
 * 5)  https://www.thepetitionsite.com/516/458/354/justice-for-deshon-johnson/
 * 6)  https://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/d/deshon/
 * 7)  https://www.nj.com/news/2012/07/22-year-old_essex_county_colle.html
 * 8)  http://soulality.blogspot.com/2017/12/newspaper-clipping-and-online.html
 * 9)  https://patch.com/new-jersey/bloomfield/deshon-johnson-receives-posthumous-degree-d1f906df
 * 10)  https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/montclair-college-student-hit-by-bus/1951377/
 * 11)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_EDCl2M3xI
 * 12)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WS6ctZB1Tg
 * 13)  https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/499591725/
 * 14)  https://medium.com/@soullityjournalists/an-unjust-murder-case-by-the-community-coach-usa-bus-driver-operating-nj-transit-bus-709-c885feb65bbd
 * 15)  https://www.scribd.com/document/330675389/Supporter-Comments-Stop-Reckless-Aggressive-And-Rude-Bus-Drivers-From-Carelessly-Taking-Young-Innocent-Lives-Like-Deshon-Johnson-Change
 * 16)  https://www.groundreport.com/mother-fights-for-son-deshons-law-to-be-pass-going-on-two-years-2012-yet-it-took-angelies-law-a-few-months-after-her-2013-death/
 * 17)  http://thejerseytomatopress.com/stories/Mothers-Grief-grows-as-Bloomfield-trashes-memorial-in-honor-of-her-son-hit-and-killed-by-bus-ONE,14756?print=1