West Virginian Woman, who said she was raped and beaten, recants story.

[Wylie Times]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/21/assault.recanted/index.html

A 22-year-old woman whose claims that she was abused in a trailer in rural West Virginia in 2007 helped send six people to prison now says she made up the story, her lawyer said Wednesday.

"She is recanting her entire story," attorney Byron Potts told reporters in Columbus, Ohio, about his client, Megan Williams, who moved there after the incident. "She says it did not happen. She fabricated it."

He added, "She wanted to get back at her boyfriend. She was mad at him."

In 2007, police acting on a tip found the black woman in a trailer with cuts and bruises. She said she had been stabbed in the leg and beaten, sexually assaulted, forced to eat feces and subjected to a racial slur by her white captors.

The suspects included a mother and son, a separate mother and daughter, and two men. All are still jailed, according to the prosecutor who handled the case.

The incident, which drew extensive media coverage, stirred outrage around the country. Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton called for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime.

Last year, all six defendants pleaded guilty and were given terms of up to 40 years in prison.

Potts said his client was coming forward "to right the wrong perpetrated on these six individuals." He added that she told him all her injuries except for the bruises on her face were self-inflicted. The bruises, he said, were from an altercation she had had with her then-boyfriend before the incident in question.

Potts described Williams' feelings as "total remorse; that's why she's coming forward. She is remorseful for having these people spend time in jail."

Asked if she was being pressured to recant, he said, "No, she's not being pressured into this."

Williams had been expected to speak herself, but Potts said she would not appear before the news media because she was afraid for her safety.

He said she was "fully aware" that she might face criminal charges, "but she still wanted to go forward with this."

Brian Abraham, the former Logan County prosecutor who handled the case, defended the convictions. "The case wasn't based on her statements," he said, noting that Williams never testified in the case. "The case was based on the evidence discovered by the police, including the confessions of the six defendants."

He added, "All six of them have been in jail without filing appeals. If they file something afterwards, the evidence was pretty overwhelming for the charges on which they were convicted."

The current county prosecutor, John Bennett, said he could not comment on whether the case would be reopened. He said he represented one of the suspects in 2007 and so would let a judge decide how to handle the potential conflict of interest.

Sharpton said, "If they are being held under false information and she misled authorities, and if the authorities went solely on her testimony, then they should be released." But he added, "If there are other circumstances around the recanting, we should know what they are."

I'm really not entirely sure what to make of this...If it's found out she did lie she should serve a HARSH sentence. Something about this seems fishy though..

*edit*

Can a mod please correct the grammer in the thread title.

 

[bullets]

that's kind of weird , why would she send six people to jail when she was trying get back at one guy ? maybe she is being threatened , i hope not.

 

[Bruce Banner]

Its very fishy. Something is up regardless on who is telling the truth or what the full story is.

Its a sad world we live in at times.

 

[Manic]

Six people plead guilty to assaulting her, but she comes forward two years later to say she made it up? Really? This does sound fishy.

 

[Bruce Banner]

I'd have her psycholgically evaluated. She could have really been beaten and raped and is now mentally off her rocker. Due to the trauma from the event. If it did happen

But who knows who to believe anymore. Regardless she should be evaluated.

 

[Wylie Times]

I remember this story when it first broke and went they would start going into the details of what happened it was SO disgusting that it almost sounded fake to me.

There had to have been SOME evidence of those people doing something to that woman for them to not only get six convictions but six guilty pleas also.

 

[omid17]

Six people plead guilty to assaulting her, but she comes forward two years later to say she made it up? Really? This does sound fishy.

maby they pleaded guilty so they can get a lighter sentence cause going to jail was inevitable

 

[Manic]

If she made it up, then there was likely a lack of evidence supporting her claims. If there's no evidence, their attorney shouldn't have advised them to plead guilty. I mean, no alibi on their part? They just took the guilty plea in hopes for a lighter sentence on a crime they didn't commit? If that's the case, then their appointed attorney needs to be slapped.

 

[omid17]

true

 

[Gilpesh]

If she made it up, then there was likely a lack of evidence supporting her claims. If there's no evidence, their attorney shouldn't have advised them to plead guilty. I mean, no alibi on their part? They just took the guilty plea in hopes for a lighter sentence on a crime they didn't commit? If that's the case, then their appointed attorney needs to be slapped.

I bet he didn't really want to try and fight a case in the court of public opinion if they really were innocent. Cause once everyone read the story, those people were 'guilty'.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Wait a sec...she says she concocted the story but the defendants confessed to it during the investigation??! I'm glad I'm not the one trying to sort out this mess.

 

[Wylie Times]

Wait a sec...she says she concocted the story but the defendants confessed to it during the investigation??! I'm glad I'm not the one trying to sort out this mess.

Defendants confessing to crime they didn't commit is sadly not unusual. Some people a susceptible to being bullied into confessing to crimes they didn't commit. There have been cases where people have confessed and been cleared later on DNA evidence.

This story is still fishy though as the woman never testified in court, so they pretty much had to of had evidence that these people did something.

 

[Paradoxium]

When it comes to rape, the guy is assumed guilty until proven innocent. Imagine the stigma and rock pelting the guys probably got. Even to this day, many think the guys at Duke raped that girl when it is proven otherwise. These type of liars damage the legitimate cases; that is women who did in fact get raped.

 

[Majic Walrus]

If she made it up, then there was likely a lack of evidence supporting her claims. If there's no evidence, their attorney shouldn't have advised them to plead guilty. I mean, no alibi on their part? They just took the guilty plea in hopes for a lighter sentence on a crime they didn't commit? If that's the case, then their appointed attorney needs to be slapped.

Agree.

 

[terry78]

Those damn women and their "I was raped, oh wait no I wasn't". What a world we live in.

 

[Obi-Ron]

"She wanted to get back at her boyfriend. She was mad at him."

Sounds to me like she should be charged with "hate crime".

 

[BillyZaned]

so... she wanted to get back at her boyfriend, so you got gang banged by a bunch of guys.....

then she was probably found out, since all the guys bragged about it, and she got known as a huge pipping ****.... so she accused them of rape to clear her name...

that's what I'm assuming happened

 

[Figs]

Wow, what a ****e.

My gf has this friend who spent 6 months to a year in prison because some little 17 year old ***** lied and said he raped her. She eventually confessed much like this case but I would have been so pissed having to spend time in jail for a lie. As much as I don't have a tolerance for actual rape I also don't have a tolerance for people who lie about it to screw someone over.

I'm also surprised no one has busted out any CSI Caruso jokes for this yet.

 

[Cunning Stunts]

Just because they plead guilty doesn't mean they actually were. They were probably told to do that in order to get a lesser sentence, because rape cases are damned near impossible to defend against.

Unless you're Ben Roethlisberger.

 

[Lunar_Wolf]

forced to eat feces

If that is true, I'm curious to know, who's it was??? Did someone just poop on the floor and shoved her head into it?

 

[Raiden]

I think falsifying rape will only hurt other, real-life victims of this crime. No women should create a fake story about them being raped because this is a very serious crime.

 

[piccolo]

Women have way too much power in the legal system.

 

[Figs]

Women have way too much power in the legal system.

I'm going to have to agree to an extent.

I think what it comes down to is a good number of judges are old, or are still thinking in old terms which isn't right to do in this day and age.

My supervisor at work as well as a friend of mine both are dealing with custody battles with their exes. In both cases it's the fathers who are the good ones and the moms that are shady *****es that lie and even in one of those cases neglects the child. Of course even with all the facts and evidence both my supervisor and friend come up with, the judges still blindly side with the women.

I just hear about it, it's not my personal drama but it still gets my blood boiling.

 

[Bruce Banner]

I'm going to have to agree to an extent.

My supervisor at work as well as a friend of mine both are dealing with custody battles with their exes. In both cases it's the fathers who are the good ones and the moms that are shady *****es that lie and even in one of those cases neglects the child. Of course even with all the facts and evidence both my supervisor and friend come up with, the judges still blindly side with the women.
quote]

My uncle was going through this. He finally got custody over his first born child after 12 years of going to the courts and the all the legal fees.

 

[katie_girl09]

Something is very fishy about this.