The recent murder of my mother Rosemary Johnson - stabbed to death over 100 times - is one of the most gruesome and tragic acts of domestic violence ever recorded in the city of Cape Coral.
My younger brother Devin Johnson faces life in prison or worse if the charges are upgraded to 1st degree murder.
The media so far has not engaged in extensive investigative journalism to grasp the full picture and history of how these events came to happen. Credit is due to Gulf Coast News however for the most significant effort in airing these issues.
The plain truth is that my family has been torn apart by domestic violence and drug addiction issues for over 40 years in Florida. My father Alfred Johnson was a brutally violent drug addict that beat my mother, myself, and my brother without mercy. I personally witnessed him drive drunk in Lee County over 1,000 times growing up, with children in the car, even my own friends. He would typically drink 10-30 beers per day, and sometimes more. My father also abused illicit steroids leading to a heart attack and lifelong heart problems, as well as cocaine and other illegal drugs.
My father and mother both worked aggressively to conceal these issues from public school teachers, private school teachers, accountants, doctors, pediatricians, neighbors, our friend’s parents, extended family, youth sports coaches, and any other adult or authority figure present in our lives growing up.
My mom likely suffered from “battered woman syndrome” and often refused or limited her cooperation with law enforcement and state prosecutors when my father was arrested. While she opposed his rampant alcoholism and domestic violence in principle and word - she did advocate for him to seek treatment many times - her actions were ultimately that of his chief enabler.
As documented in the public arrest records seen in the attached image, my father’s propensity for domestic violence and drug abuse spread to both my younger brother and younger sister in substantial and similar ways. This is not surprising statistically.
Devin and Renee both have extensive criminal records for domestic violence and drug crimes, including felony arrests preceding the recent murder.
This is how my father trained them to be by his own example. He also trained them to be enablers and to view life threatening domestic violence as normal. My mother sadly also raised them to be enablers, even if inadvertently and without intent by her own example spanning decades.
My brother’s alleged murder of our mother is not an isolated incident of domestic violence - and the contents of his blood will soon be revealed in court to document any substance abuse from that day. My mother’s death is factually part of a larger web of criminal violence and drug abuse engaged in by our family, spanning decades, and 3 of 6 family members from our family of origin.
My brother’s violent crimes and drug abuse in other words stem from our father, and are non-specific to Devin. It is in my view a pattern of behavior picked up by 50% of the children in our family. Devin and Renee have both been arrested specifically for felony domestic violence involving edged weapons.
The last time I ever saw my father was December 24th 2017. He was beating a puppy with a closed fist. I demanded he stop. He then tried to kill me by throwing a 14 piece kitchen knife set at me full speed.
I am a black sheep of my family because I have stood so aggressively against domestic violence and the enabling behavior around it. I’ve maintained a zero-tolerance policy for all this stuff in my entire adult life.
I’ve also worked to expose these issues for several years. This was a source of constant conflict with my mother and sisters because in different ways, they each have worked to conceal, suppress, silence, or omit any mention of these crimes regarding my father.
The silencing and censorship campaign against me recently since my mother’s murder has been particularly aggressive. My sister Renee has led this campaign against me of defamation - including willful libel and slander both. This escalated beyond defamation to intentional emotional harm, tortious interference, cyberstalking, harassing me in public, false and misleading statements to law enforcement, yelling and screaming at my wife and daughter in church, ultimately resulting in Renee being escorted out of the church by CCPD.
I have threatened my sister Renee’s attorney with civil litigation if these actions do not stop. I have previously sued Renee and her husband in the civil courts of Lee County. Her husband has since died from an illicit drug overdose, a primary cause of action in my lawsuit from 2022.
More recently local news has aired footage of my sister Renee trying to spin my brother’s alleged actions as part of a vague, nationwide mental health crisis.
“We have a huge crisis in this country with mental illness, and there’s just something needs to be done about it,” Caney said.
I believe that this is a deliberate misdirection to divert attention away from the facts of our family history that include her and our father. My father Alfred Johnson has *zero* documented history of a diagnosed mental illness to my knowledge.
While Devin may indeed suffer from mental health problems - including but not limited to undiagnosed PTSD and traumatic brain injuries from the beatings our father gave him among other life events - our family has suffered from something far more specific.
A private, hidden epidemic of family violence and drug abuse, spanning over 40 years in Florida, 29 years of which are currently documented in public records. Paper records should date back to the early 1980s and I am currently seeking to obtain these older documents to paint the full picture of our family’s history.
At this time I have offered to be a neutral witness both for state prosecutors and my brother’s public defender. I want to tell the truth. This is absolutely critical for both sides of the criminal trial to understand, as well as the public due to how big of an impact this has had on Cape Coral and Lee County.
My sister Renee has actively pursued - and failed - to obtain a gag order of sorts against me in the civil courts of Lee County, among other bad faith attempts in censoring me recently. I believe she has committed a crime by misleading the courts, and potentially perjured herself. This is how unhinged and devoted she is to silencing me and this history of our family.
I do not care if my surviving family are ashamed of our father, or if my younger sister is embarrassed by her own public arrest record. What matters is the truth, justice for my mother, and a fair trial for my brother. Silencing the truth about our family history directly impedes his criminal trial and justice being delivered for our mother.
To my knowledge I am the only person alive who is able, willing, and ready to speak the truth of these issues plainly, as they happened over decades in Lee County.
I am committed to speaking the truth by any and all means necessary, including civil lawsuits and any other lawful action required.
At this time I am of the view that both of my sisters abandoned our mother on the day of her funeral, in working to silence my free speech and eulogy reviewing these issues in polite terms, appropriate for the setting. My father trained them to be his enablers, even in death, and I remain fully opposed to this morally repugnant course of action.
/s/ Anthony Dream Johnson