Judge approves changes to Jane Doe lawsuit over Sean Williams alleged rapes

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — A judge has approved class-action status for alleged rape victims of Sean Williams in their lawsuit against Johnson City and some of its police officers.

Friday’s ruling by Judge Travis McDonough also okayed a request to add two individual defendants from the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD).

McDonough granted nearly all the changes attorneys had requested to a suit originally filed last June. The amendment paves the way for additional alleged victims to join the lawsuit as class members without having to testify in court and also creates a class of sexual assault victims with no ties to the Sean Williams case.

Erwin Police Department searching for armed robbery suspect

The initial June 2023 lawsuit on behalf of nine “Jane Doe” alleged victims claimed the JCPD essentially enabled Williams to conduct a sex trafficking operation — allegedly drugging and raping dozens of women — when he lived in a downtown Johnson City apartment. It accuses police of looking the other way, and in some cases benefiting financially for doing so.

The City has previously denied all the suit’s allegations and defense attorneys had opposed the change, which comes after the normal deadline for amending a complaint has passed. But McDonough characterized most of their arguments as unconvincing, at least for a motion to disallow amendment to the suit. He cited a precedent that when amendments are sought courts should “freely give leave when justice so requires.”

He ruled that the defense had not proven the request was made in bad faith, would cause unnecessary delays or would unfairly hamper the defense’s own case — and also decided the defense hadn’t proven that the new claims were “futile.”

In deciding whether to disallow amendments at this stage of a case, “the court considers not whether the plaintiff will ultimately prevail, but whether the facts permit the Court to infer ‘more than the mere possibility of misconduct,'” McDonough wrote.

The judge also noted the rapid changes surrounding Williams’ own case, including since the initial Jane Does suit was filed in June 2023.

He referenced the case’s close ties to an earlier federal civil suit against the City of Johnson City by former assistant U.S. Attorney Kat Dahl, who claims the JCPD removed her from her job after she pressed JCPD in late 2020 to more closely investigate sexual assault allegations against Williams.

Just over the last year, Williams has been arrested, a third-party report has found significant issues in how JCPD handled sexual assault cases between 2018 and 2022, and News Channel 11 has broken the story that when arrested April 29, 2023, Williams allegedly held digital files showing himself raping more than 50 different women and at least three children.

Some of those alleged victims didn’t even learn they had been raped until investigators brought them in to review the evidence.

Computer files show 52 Sean Williams alleged rapes

“The subject of this case — an alleged conspiracy between JCPD and a serial rapist — is complex and sensitive, and it is reasonable to expect that not all victims who wish to participate in the suit will come forward at an early stage in the litigation,” McDonough wrote.

He added that despite defense arguments to the contrary, “nothing in the record suggests Plaintiffs dragged their feet in moving to amend after uncovering new evidence and speaking with additional victims…”

The City of Johnson City responded to News Channel 11’s request for comment with a brief statement: “We have faith in the judicial process and accept the judge’s decision.”

The suit’s second amended complaint creates two classes of victims. A “sex trafficking survivor class” could include alleged sexual assault victims of former downtown Johnson City resident Sean Williams, thought to number in the dozens. A “reporter survivor class” could include any other people who reported sexual assaults between early 2018 and 2023, even cases unrelated to Williams.

Most of that time period is covered in an independent audit of the JCPD’s handling of sexual assault cases that the city commissioned not long after a separate 2022 lawsuit was filed against the city. Among its findings were that “JCPD’s interactions with women reporting sexual assault all too often reflect reliance on gender-based stereotypes and bias.” It said that discrimination “is responsible in part for the deficiencies in JCPD’s response to sexual assault.”

Defendants had argued the Doe attorneys hadn’t met the four thresholds to support a class action suit. McDonough wrote that in the case of the sex trafficking survivor class, defense attorneys argued the statute of limitations would differ for various class members and that not all the alleged victims “suffered the same harm” due to varying circumstances.

“Neither of the Defendants’ arguments is compelling,” McDonough wrote.

In the case of the reporter survivor class, the defense had claimed if a victim’s case had resulted in arrest, that proved at least in those cases they had “not suffered an injury.” McDonough, though, wrote that “being subjected to systemic sex-based discrimination is an injury.”

The plaintiffs’ claim that even victims whose cases were prosecuted “suffered injury due to JCPD’s reliance ‘on gender-based stereotypes and bias…” is at least plausible enough to move to the next stage, the judge wrote.

“Whether Plaintiffs can evidentiarily support this allegation will be borne out at a later stage of litigation. For now, it is sufficient to advance past the motion-to-amend phase.”

The amendment also requested adding officers Legault and Higgins on two counts: violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and obstructing enforcement of it.

McDonough denied the TVPA claim, saying there were no allegations that either of those officers benefitted specifically from the alleged conspiracy. He did allow the claims that they obstructed enforcement of the TVPA.

The plaintiffs claim Legault retaliated against one of the alleged Williams victims by wrongly assaulting and arresting her, leading to her eviction from public housing. They claim Higgins knew about rape complaints against Williams and refused to investigate.

Approval of the amended suit still leaves the matter far from settled. The defense can move for the case to be dismissed, and if it isn’t, it is set to be argued at trial in late spring 2025.

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