Posey ordered to pay stepsons $2.7m

Civil judgment comes two years after dentist’s murder conviction

By MARSHA DORGAN
Register Staff Writer

The two stepsons of Napa dentist and convicted murderer Michael Posey have won a civil suit in which a Napa Superior Court judge ordered Posey to pay $2.73 million.

The money is to be divided equally between Michael Joseph Johnson and Cody Alan Johnson, now 20 and 19, who sued Posey for the wrongful death of their mother.

Two years ago, Posey was convicted of first-degree murder of the boys’ mother and his then estranged wife, Elizabeth Posey. Posey was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison.

On Wednesday, a Napa County jury in the civil trial determined Posey had been negligent in the incident in which Elizabeth Posey was shot at short range, and had caused the boys the loss of her companionship and love. The total judgment is  $2,727,921.

Elizabeth Posey was killed on April 19, 1996, after a domestic dispute at Michael Posey’s home on Maplewood Avenue in Napa.

At the time of Elizabeth Posey’s death, the Poseys were going through a divorce. Michael and Cody, along with the couples’ own two sons, who were then 3 and 1, were living with their mother in Cordelia.

Posey was interviewed that night at the Napa police station, but was not arrested. He continued to work in his Napa dental office and cared for the couples’ sons.

His arrest in April 2005 came after investigators brought forward new blood and ballistics evidence that did not square with Posey’s description of the dispute.

Posey steadily has maintained his innocence, saying he and his estranged were arguing over money and wrestling for control of the gun when it went off accidentally.

At his sentencing two years ago, he looked directly at Michael and Cody Johnson, who were in the courtroom, and said, “Mike, Cody, I did not murder your mother.”

Posey’s sons are living with his family members in the Bay Area. He is in the process of filing an appeal of his murder conviction.

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