JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Western Carolina College (WCU) police discovered units with photographs and video of greater than 50 rapes allegedly dedicated by way of Sean Williams in Johnson Town after arresting him in overdue April, a seek warrant affidavit filed in Jonesborough, Tenn. states.
That warrant sought get right of entry to to further telephones and computer systems that the Johnson Town Police Division (JCPD) has held since seizing them in September 2020 all over an investigation into a lady’s near-fatal fall from Williams’ fifth-floor downtown Johnson Town rental.
Two different warrants filed in June and July sought Williams’ DNA and different bodily proof, bringing up possible purpose that he dedicated two explicit rapes — each allegedly recorded in video or photographs — in November 2019 and November 2020.
Video or picture proof was once at the North Carolina units that confirmed sexual attacks no longer simply on the ones two ladies, however on 3 others who filed sexual attack court cases with JCPD between June and November 2020, in keeping with the affidavit.
That can had been the top of the iceberg.
“Inside those information, your affiant has recognized roughly 52 feminine sufferers which might be depicted in virtual photographs or movies being sexually assaulted by way of Williams,” Tennessee First Judicial District Felony Investigator Mike Little wrote in his Might 31 request for a seek warrant.
“Those attacks all seem to happen whilst the feminine sufferers had been in an evident state of unconsciousness and are identifiable as having came about at Williams’s rental at 200 E. Primary Side road in Johnson Town…,” the narrative continues.
Little’s affidavit supporting a seek warrant asked get right of entry to to 4 telephones, 4 computer systems and 3 reminiscence playing cards of Williams’s that the JCPD seized round Sept. 23, 2020.
Two further affidavits asked permission to gather DNA and different bodily knowledge from Williams, who has been jailed since April 29, for imaginable use in two explicit rape prosecutions.
Little’s affidavit additionally argued possible purpose that Williams allegedly sexually assaulted a minimum of two kids at his rental.
Two separate federal civil proceedings declare the 51-year-old Williams — who’s recently jailed and dealing with federal fees — was once a “serial rapist” whose sufferers encountered a JCPD that was once negligent at best possible and corrupt at worst when it got here to the downtown trade proprietor.
Little’s preliminary affidavit additionally asserts “that Williams has participated within the more than a few sexual based totally offenses for an ongoing and sustained time frame.” On account of this, it calls “the possibility of extra photographs being saved on different virtual units belonging to Williams … extremely most probably, if no longer possible.”
So far, Williams has no longer been charged with any sexual attacks.
The affidavit suggests there may be possible purpose the units in Johnson Town display proof of annoyed rape, annoyed rape of a kid, sexual exploitation of a minor and illegal pictures in violation of privateness.
The ones computer systems, telephones and reminiscence playing cards, Little wrote, had been within the JCPD’s ownership since September 2020. That’s when JCPD carried out its personal seek warrant because it investigated Mikayla Evans’s near-fatal fall from Williams’s fifth-floor rental window on Spring Side road downtown.
The North Carolina information are alleged to incorporate a minimum of two collection of virtual photographs appearing Williams sexually abusing an toddler boy not up to a 12 months outdated and a woman not up to 8 years outdated.
That incident and JCPD’s dealing with of it brought on an ongoing string of occasions that incorporated the April 2021 federal indictment of Williams for being a felon in ownership of ammunition. The ammunition was once came upon in Williams’s secure all over the Evans investigation.
Likelihood come upon in a carpark
Whilst allegations of Williams’s sexual predation first surfaced publicly in former U.S. Lawyer Kat Dahl’s June 2022 federal lawsuit, it sounds as if to have taken a part-time campus police officer’s probability come upon with Williams at the banks of the Tuckasegee River in Cullowhee, N.C. to blow the case open.
Not one of the more than one stories by way of ladies to JCPD had yielded a fee. Dahl, who pressed JCPD to extra assertively examine the ones allegations, in the end settled for the ammunition ownership warrant.
Officials attempted to serve the federal warrant on Williams at his house on Might 5, 2021 however had been unsuccessful. He ended up a fugitive for almost two years prior to WCU officer Charles Gooden arrested him all over a regimen patrol of a riverside parking space and boat ramp Western owns close to its campus.
Whilst Information Channel 11 reported on WCU’s discovery of 12 oz of cocaine and 14 oz of methamphetamine, police additionally seized about $100,000 money and “more than one digital units and virtual garage units.” The ones incorporated two thumb drives taped in combination “and shaped in order that the USB ends had been opposing and each drives may well be used.”
As they investigated suspected drug trafficking because of the huge quantities of substances and money Williams had on him, the investigators received a seek warrant for the units.
As soon as North Carolina police discovered proof of obvious Johnson Town sexual attacks and kid pornography, they alerted Tennessee government. Little and FBI Particular Agent Paul Durant traveled to North Carolina, the place WCU Police Leader Steven Lillard reviewed probably the most came upon photographs and information with Little and Durant.
One of the crucial thumb drives allegedly contained greater than 5,000 downloaded photographs of kid pornography. On account of its relevance to what Little referred to as “ongoing JCPD investigations,” the fabric at the thumb drives was once downloaded by way of Lillard for evaluate by way of Little and JCPD Investigator Toma Sparks. Sparks led the investigation after Evans fell, which in the long run concluded no foul play.
What comes subsequent
The alleged video and photographic proof can have subject matter penalties past simply the prospective prosecution of Sean Williams.
Williams faces an early November federal trial at the felon in ownership of ammunition fee and a 2d federal fee of tried break out after he allegedly attempted to flee from the Washington County prison in July. The ones may carry a complete of 15 years in federal jail, mixed.
On the state degree, annoyed rape is punishable by way of 15 to 60 years in jail. Irritated rape of a kid is punishable by way of lifestyles in jail with out the potential of parole. Sexual exploitation of a minor can elevate a two to 12-year jail sentence, and an individual may also be charged for each and every person symbol.
The affidavits and any follow-up from the quest warrant, together with attainable fees, additionally might supply fodder for the various civil movements being pursued towards Johnson Town and its police division.
A kind of is Dahl’s swimsuit, which claims she unsuccessfully recommended then-Leader Karl Turner and the JCPD to research Williams for rape and sexual attack and that she “turned into involved that Johnson Town was once deliberately refusing or recklessly failing to research or grasp (Williams)…” Dahl claims JCPD ended her contract with the dep. in retaliation for her insistence that Williams be extra completely investigated.
Every other is a federal whistleblower motion that’s being spearheaded by way of the non-profit Whistleblower Help. Whistleblower Help sought alleged sufferers to achieve out to its lawyers and different workforce within the speedy aftermath of Dahl’s June 23, 2020 federal swimsuit submitting. The gang may support in a minimum of two legitimate court cases Dahl has filed with federal government, together with the Division of Justice.
A 3rd is a federal civil swimsuit filed on behalf of 9 alleged sexual attack sufferers of Williams. It was once filed June 21, 2023 and launches with a stark declare: “For years, Sean Williams drugged and raped ladies in Johnson Town, Tennessee, and for years, officials of the (JCPD) let him break out with it.”
Information Channel 11 reached out to First Judicial District Lawyer Basic Steve Finney’s place of business Tuesday to invite whether or not the DA is pursuing efforts to indict Williams and what the timeline for that may well be.
Finney spoke back that because of the investigation being “very lively” and “diligently investigated” by way of his place of business, his place of business selected to not remark now.
