Yet Another Wrinkle In The Megan Williams Story

I recently posted about Megan Williams' statement that her allegations of rape and torture were false. Megan's supporters helped raise more than $70,000 from the initial incident. In addition she and her mother had hoped to make money from a book she hoped to write or a movie about the incident. It made me question how a woman could go to such elaborate ends to perpetrate such a tale.

Now today, according to the Associated Press, I learned that the story doesn't end there. Frankie Brewster, one of the defendants, told WCHS-TV in Charleston that multiple crimes were committed against Megan Williams during the attack.

"It did happen," Brewster said during the interview at the Lakin Correctional Center, where she is serving 10 to 25 years. "All of us participated."

Brewster denied that race or Williams' relationship with her son started the series of crimes. Rather, she blamed a co-defendant who accused Williams of stealing.

While Brewster would not detail her own actions, she acknowledged having improper contact with Williams. Brewster pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault in the case.

Brewster also said that race wasn't a factor and she said some of the crimes did not occur at her trailer home.


"I just want the truth out and for people take responsibility for what they did," Brewster said


So what truly happened? What is the real story? Will we ever truly know? Here's what I do know. If this incident happened as she originally said it did then it is egregious. If she lied about this then I find this almost incomprehensible and question her mental stability.

Either way this case opens the gaping maw of racism and causes us to wonder just how far we've really come. Are we still a country where the race of the perpetrator determines how heinous a crime is or is it the facts of the case that defines this? Would there be a need for Hate Crime laws if we would honestly punish those who commit crimes against HUMANS to the fullest extent of the law?

What of Sharpton's role in all this? If Megan's latest story is correct, and this is all manufactured, then should we be outraged that Sharpton has yet again rushed into the fray for his own self-aggrandizement? Is he a provocateur of racism or a champion of the oppressed?

Black Woman Retracts White Torture Claim

As a rape survivor I am very sympathetic to others who have been abused and degraded by this horrible crime. I know some of what they deal with, the nightmares, the trust issues, the doubts, the wagging fingers and my heart aches that we as a society have not yet found a way to stop this sort of violence against women. Just as horrible we live in a society that still judges and at some level blames the rape victim

When I heard of horrific acts and crimes related to the reported abuse and repeated sexual assault inflicted uponMegan Williams my heart went out to her. How could any one human being let alone six treat someone in this manner?

Six white suspects, male and female, were placed in police custody for allegedly torturing and attacking Megan Williams back in 2007. The woman’s abductors were said to have used racial slurs in their attacks that included stabbing, choking, rape, pulling out her hair, confinement to eat animal feces and other grotesque acts, according to media reports.

The Rev. Al Sharpton lashed out at state and federal officials for not speaking out against Williams’ ordeal.

“It’s a deafening silence,” Sharpton told The Logan Banner. “I guarantee you when we come in, it will make everyone respond. It shouldn’t have to take us to do it, but this is a national uproar among whites and blacks. I think that there’s shock and dismay that there has not been outrage expressed by our national leadership.”

Both Sen. Robert C. Byrd and Sen. Jay Rockefeller have condemned the attack.

You can read her transcript here.

Having once been the woman too afraid to close her eyes for fear her attacker may find her again and kill her this time her case brought back the nightmares that still plague me of my rape. I still bear the scars of the knife wounds which are a constant reminder that my life was on the line.

Seven white men and women were convicted in the case and are serving prison time. It seemed like the case was now over and everything was tied up in a short amount of time. I was happy for her that justice seemed to have played out, for me it never has because my rapist was allowed to plead out because he turned states evidence on another unrelated case.

Today there is an update on this case. Megan William's attorney says his client fabricated the story to get back at a boyfriend who had beaten her up. Potts (her attorney) said that Brewster's son, Bobby, was the boyfriend who had beaten Williams and that she had stabbed herself with a straight razor to help embellish the story of being tortured. As a matter of fact she admits that the only thing not self-inflicted were the bruises on her face,'

Williams told the newspaper that she was afraid of her mother, who knew some of the defendants.

Williams' mother, Carmen Williams, died in June. Potts said he did not know what role the mother might have had in fabricating the case.

The woman's lawyer, Byron Potts, said she no longer wants to live a lie. 'She told me the only thing not self-inflicted were the bruises on her face,' Potts said at a news conference in Columbus, Ohio.

Williams, 22, who now lives with a caregiver, was in the office with Potts but she did not appear before reporters.

In a January interview with The Call & Post, a black newspaper in Cleveland, Williams acknowledged she had been mistreated but said her mother made her embellish the story for exposure and financial gain.

Prosecutors in West Virginia have dismissed Williams' new claim, and lawyers for the defendants aren't discussing their plans.

Every time one woman uses a falese charge of rape against a man for revenge, it makes it harder for the next woman, fighting back to reclaim her life to be believed on the stand. I do not care about her race, her religion, or any such identifier. I care that she is a woman and she hurt us all with these action. Her words were meant to harm her boyfriend and his family but they cut into the hearts of many. I hope that she seeks out counseling because she is definitely in need of it.