In 2007, Williams made national headlines after she accused
several white attackers in Logan County
of kidnapping, raping and torturing her.
Now, she says she fabricated most of the story to get back
at her former boyfriend, Bobby Brewster, who had beaten her up, according to
Potts.
“The reason she is coming forward now is that she wants to
right the wrong perpetrated on these six individuals. She can’t continue to
live this lie,” Potts said.
But the former prosecutor in the case doesn’t believe her,
and says his convictions will stand regardless.
In September 2007, Megan Williams told police that several
white men and women in rural Big Creek, West
Virginia held her against her will, sexually
assaulted her, beat her and stabbed her in the leg.
Now, Potts says most of her injuries were self-inflicted.
Williams told him she stabbed herself with a straight-razor, although Potts
admitted he did not understand how one could stab oneself with a razor.
Police found Williams in the trailer where Brewster lived
with his mother, Frankie Brewster.
When he was a juvenile, Bobby Brewster was convicted of
killing his father. He also had a record of domestic violence against Williams.
Four others are serving jail sentences for their
involvement, including one woman, Karen Burton, who pled guilty to a hate crime
for shouting racial slurs at Williams as she assaulted her.
But now, Potts says he believes they all deserve their
freedom.
“They need to get out, they don’t need to be in jail for
something that they did not do,” Potts said.
The former prosecutor in the case, Brian Abraham, says Williams
called him recently to ask if Brewster or the other defendants had been
paroled. He says he believes Williams is lying now.
“It’s a little absurd given the other evidence in the case
and what she’d said before. There’s no basis for her recanting her testimony,”
Abraham said.
Abraham said the convictions should stand because they don’t
depend upon Williams’ statements.
“These defendants were convicted not based on what she said,
but the evidence,” he said.
He said prosecutors reached plea deals with some defendants
because they were afraid Williams would make a bad witness, and because her
story kept changing when she made different statements to the media.
Some people who know Williams have questioned whether she
has the mental capacity to give trustworthy testimony in the case.
At one point, Abraham sought to have a legal guardian
appointed for Williams, although he dropped that when she promised to stop
talking to the media.
Charleston Pastor Lloyd Hill told the Charleston Gazette
that she had the mental capacity of a 10- or 12-year-old girl, and that she
seemed excited about the stuffed animals and media attention she was receiving.
Potts said he would have Williams evaluated, but he had no
reason to believe she was not competent to make her own decisions.
Many people became involved in Williams’ case after it
received national attention -- from Malik Shabazz of the New Black Panther
Party, to Civil Rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton, who personally donated
$1,000 to a fund for Williams.
But according to Potts, Williams never received the money
raised for her. Instead, her now-deceased mother, Carmen Williams, took it, he
said.
Megan Williams came to live with an unnamed woman in
Columbus whom she met at a rally in West Virginia.
That woman and Williams found Potts and asked him to take
their case to the public.
But Potts’ press conference left many questions unanswered.
How would Williams fool county and state police, as well as local prosecutors,
into believing that kidnapping, sexual assault and torture took place, if it
didn’t?
And, why would every defendant plea guilty to the charges
against them?
“That was the first question in my mind. Why did they plea
to this?” Potts said.
Abraham makes one more point – not only did the defendants
all plead guilty, none of them have challenged their convictions since then. That’s
unusual, he said.
Many defendants, even those who made guilty pleas, challenge
their convictions once they get to jail, but no one in this case had done that,
he said.
So far, lawyers for the jailed defendants have not said what
they plan to do.
As for Williams, she could face charges herself, if
prosecutors determine she lied to them.
But the new Logan County
prosecutor, John Bennett, may have a conflict of interest – he briefly
represented one of the defendants now in jail. Bennett says he may ask for a special
prosecutor in the case.