Sean Williams alleged victims speak out, say city manager ‘victim blamed’ them
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — They came to the podium and let loose on the City of Johnson City and its police department — alleged victims of accused serial rapist Sean Williams, reacting to what they called victim blaming by City Manager Cathy Ball.
“It was hurtful to read what Mrs. Ball had said,” the first of five alleged victims to speak Tuesday said of Ball’s comments about what’s known as “comparative fault” at an Aug. 25, 2023 news conference. Ball’s comments included reference to some of the plaintiffs allegedly taking illegal drugs when they visited Williams’ downtown Johnson City apartment, where he allegedly drugged and raped them.
Ball made the comments in the context of a civil lawsuit against the city, saying defense attorneys needed to include the potential for using comparative fault among its defenses. If successful, that defense could either decrease the damages due to a plaintiff or be seen as cause to vindicate a defendant. The city has denied all allegations against it in the lawsuit.
“Especially if you are in a position of power, your words matter,” another alleged victim said. “Survivors deserve to be treated with respect. For a woman in Cathy Ball’s position of power to say publicly that victims are at fault when we didn’t have the ability to defend ourselves was a punch in the gut.”
Complete Coverage of the Sean Williams Case
While Ball attempted on Aug. 25 to differentiate the civil concept of comparative fault from how she claimed the city would handle criminal sexual assault allegations, the alleged victims didn’t see room for nuance.
“After all the evidence that had come out about Sean Williams — evidence proving he had raped over 50 women and sexually exploited children — I thought the city might take some accountability,” the first woman to speak said.
“Instead, Mrs. Ball justified their lack of action by pointing fingers at us, at the victims of his crimes. I did not take any drugs before I was raped. I had been offered a beer.”
In addition to five alleged victims who spoke at the Tennessean Hotel in Knoxville Tuesday, two family members of Laura Trent, a woman who died in a car accident allegedly after an encounter with Williams that had left her highly distressed, spoke.
“If the Johnson City police had done their jobs, my sister would have never met Sean Williams on the night of November 10, 2020,” the sister said. “If the Johnson City Police Department had done their jobs, Sean Williams would have been in jail a long time before she met him.”
Comments from each alleged victim who spoke are included later in this story.
Attorneys for the women also spoke — primarily about Ball’s comments Aug. 25, which came just after the city filed its response to the initial lawsuit. It has since been amended and expanded into a class action, but the city has opposed those changes and a judge’s decision on allowing the amended suit is pending.
The suit alleges the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD) enabled what attorneys claim was an ongoing sex trafficking conspiracy and was corruptly involved in it from at least 2018 to 2021. The JCPD never charged Williams with any sex crimes but later video and photo evidence gathered by other law enforcement alleges to show him committing more than 50 sexual assaults at his downtown Johnson City apartment.
As of Tuesday, Williams faces state child rape charges and federal child pornography charges but does not yet face any charges related to the Johnson City women’s allegations.
Lead attorney Vanessa Baehr-Jones said Ball “said she was there to quote be transparent about the city’s response to our lawsuit. She then proceeded to blame Sean Williams’ victims for what had happened to them.”
“She used legal terms like comparative fault to turn the focus of this case away from Sean Williams, a serial rapist, and the Johnson City Police Department’s corruption, and instead to publicly shame the survivors of his crimes.”
“As soon as she was finished my phone blew up,” Baehr-Jones continued. “I will never forget the anguish and betrayal I heard in the voices of my clients that day. One of the great tragedies of this case is the very institutions and individuals who are supposed to be protecting and serving these women continue to fail them, again and again, continue to breach their trust, and instead of protecting them, continue to do them harm.”
Cathy Ball, who was not city manager until after Sean Williams fled following a May 5, 2021 arrest attempt for being a felon in possession of ammunition, provided the following statement:
Protecting victims and the community is the top priority of the Johnson City Police Department. We encourage anyone who has suffered a sexual assault to come forward to a law enforcement agency or to our Family Justice Center. This is vital for victims to get the help they need and the justice they deserve.
We are committed to transparency and want our community members to have access to all the facts. We have established a web page with our legal filings and the media briefings on these cases.
www.JohnsonCityTN.org/LegalFilings.
I remain committed to working endlessly with our police department to help victims heal and preventing future violent crimes.
Tuesday’s entire press conference can be watched below:
Road to the news conference
Ball said in the news conference that in the civil case, the city’s attorneys have listed that “they (alleged victims) went to the apartment, they took of illegal drugs admittedly within the (lawsuit) they have acknowledged this.
“Our attorneys in the civil lawsuit have listed that. If they do not list that then throughout this lawsuit they can never use that as a legitimate defense against this civil lawsuit.”
Those statements drew a quick rebuke from the Jane Does attorneys, led by Baehr-Jones. Two Jane Does filed declarations as part of a gag order request that would have barred the city from further public comment, providing the first reactions to the Ball news conference.
Judge Travis McDonough denied that request, citing the length of time until the trial, but called Ball’s press conference “certainly lamentable at best” and opened the door to what led to Tuesday’s news conference.
McDonough later approved a motion by Baehr-Jones and her colleagues allowing them to publicly respond to Ball’s comments, which Baehr-Jones described as “suggesting that Plaintiffs were, to some extent, responsible for their assaults due to drug use.”
‘No one signs up to be raped’
One of the two alleged victims who used her first name, Anya, said alleged victims were “here to get accountability.” She also acknowledged that she was struggling with addiction at the time of her alleged assault by Williams.
“Sean Williams was manipulating people, people who were vulnerable, people who were disadvantaged, who may have been struggling with addiction problems,” Anya said. “I was struggling with addiction when he victimized me, but I did not deserve to be a target and I certainly was not at fault.”
Anya said people “were scared to report to the police because they had heard the police were doing nothing, or worse. Victim blaming is one of the main reasons that survivors are afraid to come forward. It perpetuates rape culture.”
Heather Moore Collins, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said Ball’s comments were an example of a phenomenon known as rape culture. Collins called the women who spoke Tuesday “some of the bravest people I’ve ever met.”
She spoke of them being informed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that there were videos and images of them being raped, with some alleged victims not knowing that had occurred due to the alleged drugging Williams used.
“When City Manager Cathy Ball stood up at a podium just like this and blamed our clients for the crimes of violence that were perpetuated against them she continued an absolutely deplorable pattern of rape culture that has been perpetuated by the City of Johnson City for way too long,” Moore Collins said.
She described rape culture — a theory and term that is widely but not universally accepted — “normalizes and perpetuates sexual violence by victim blaming and victim shaming.”
Moore Collins cited several aspects of rape culture, including blaming victims for whether they drank alcohol or took drugs, whether they were at a particular place or time. She said these things often prevent victims from reporting assaults “because they think they will not be believed or they will be blamed for their assaults.”
She also said rape culture hinders victims’ ability to heal and makes it difficult to process their trauma.
“Instead they’re forced to rebut the false and disgusting notion that they asked for it,” Moore Collins said. “That is 100% absurd, and that’s what Cathy Ball stood up and asked people to believe.”
The second alleged victim to speak, one of two to use her name, echoed that.
“No survivor should feel guilty or at fault for the crimes that were committed against them,” Chaney said. “That is why I’m speaking up today. What happened to me was not my fault.”
The last alleged victim to speak said she was at home when she saw an article about Ball’s news conference. “I was outraged and I was distraught,” she said.
She identified herself as one of more than 20 people named on a list reading “raped” at the top that was recovered from Williams’ apartment in September 2020 during investigation of a woman named Mikayla Evans’ fall from his fifth-story window.
“They took no action when they found that list,” the woman said. “Instead, they dismissed credible reports made by other rape victims. The people in my community who are supposed to protect me and the other women you see here today failed us.
“I did not deserve to be victimized by Sean Williams no matter what I drank or what I consumed the evening that I was there,” she continued. “I was not comparatively at fault. I was not at fault in any way.”
The woman said the city deployed a “false narrative” that “bad things only happen to bad people.”
“Victims of Sean Williams deserve protection from sexual violence regardless of whether they drank alcohol or took illicit drugs or otherwise,” she added. “No one signs up to be raped.”
This is a developing story.
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