Megan Williams is the black woman who was brutalized, tortured, stabbed, forced to eat shit (literally) and raped over a period of a week by six white people living in West Virginia back in August. Her story has fallen off the media’s radar screen, probably because she is not a young, attractive, blonde white woman, but a woman of color.
Indeed, despite the clear racial animus directed at her by her assailants (she was told at the time by one of them “This is what we do to niggers down here”) the grand jury in Charleston, West Virginia declined to indict the defendants for hate crimes. Then when she and her supporters organized a march to rally support for hate crimes charges, the local prosecuting attorney in her case publicly stated that any display of public support for her cause would cause harm to her case. He flat out told her to stop seeking media attention for the horrific bias crimes which were committed against her.
Despite all the attempts to shut her up, Megan Williams is planning to go ahead with the rally and march through the streets of Charleston on Saturday, and continues to speak out regarding the racist hatred that fueled the criminals who assaulted her. And she has continued to speak out about the horror she endured at the hands of her captors in the hope of receiving support for her recovery and regaining media interest in one of the worst racially motivated crimes in recent memory.
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FC [Reporter]: There were some news reports that you had a relationship with one of the defendants, Bobby Brewster. Is this accurate?
MW [Megan Williams]: We were just friends. It was nothing like that.
FC: No dating relationship between you and defendant Bobby Brewster?
MW: No. They kicked me in the head with steel toed boots, they hit me in the head with several objects, I remember seeing a knife, and they tried to cut my foot off. They told me that is what they did to Kunta Kinte when they cut his foot off so he couldn’t run and that is what they were going to do to me.
FC: When exactly was this?
MW: It was like in August. When she (Christa) dropped me off up there, that’s when they started beating on me, and calling me names. When they were hitting me and stabbing me, they called me n—-r, they said ‘this is what we do to n—-rs up here’ and they said they were going to kill me.
They didn’t feed me, didn’t give me no water, they said when they came back they were going to finish me off. They made me eat rat poop, dog poop and human feces. I had to do it to stay alive. They were taking my head and drowning me in a toilet, taking it back out and putting it back in (starting to cry). They were stabbing me in the leg, and I was screaming for my mom, and they would cover my mouth up.
They made me pick green beans out of the garden, they made these switches into a braid and they were whipping me as I was picking the greens. They made me pick weeds out of the garden and they were calling me n—-r and said they were going to take me out to a creek and cut my throat and throw me in a river. All I was saying is I wanted to get back to my mom, and they were like, ‘you ain’t ever going to see your mom ever, ever again, never.’ I wanted to get back home so bad.
FC: When they were forcing you to go out into an open field was this a secluded area where no one could see you?
MW: Nobody seen me, nobody knew where I was at; it was a wooded area.
FC: At any time did you try to scream for somebody to help you ?
MW: Yep, they kept kicking me and stuff and saying that if I screamed again they were going to cut me and all kinds of stuff. […]
FC: Did you ever try fighting back?
MW: I did. I fought back when they would cut me, and they had me taped up with duct tape around my neck, my hands and feet, and when they left to get drugs and stuff, they said they were going to finish me off; they were going to take me down to a river, cut my throat and throw me in it, and I would never get to see my family ever again.
FC: There were several people involved. Who was the most vicious?
MW: All of them passed the knife around when they were stabbing me, all I remember is that when they were stabbing me, I passed out, and I guess that’s when they quit because I passed out, because I lost so much blood. I had noticed the stab wounds and they were this big and my meat was hanging out (shows the location on her left thigh). All I can remember was the knife, and I wake up every night now. That’s the only thing I see when I close my eyes is that knife. […]
FC: Megan, while you were being held there, can you tell us more about what happened?
MW: Yes. Bobby kicked me in my stomach a few times, kicked me in my back and my face and all I remember is that they hit me with several objects, a cedar stick, a fly swatter handle, a belt, a shoe, and you know the gloves with the lead in them, they were smacking me in the face with those. Both my eyes were black and every night, they made me sleep outside.
FC: While they were doing all of these drugs, what were you doing?
MW: I just wanted to get away. I asked one of them if they could let me go, they said no because ‘ain’t no n—-rs allowed up here,’ and they were going to kill me. One day, I was asleep in the room, one of them came in and was kicking me and said ‘hey n—-r, we got a noose out there for you, want to come look at it? We’re going to hang you, come on.’ I got really scared. I just wanted to get out of there. I was fighting for my life.
FC: You said that they cut your hair?
MW: As they would cut it, they were literally pulling my hair out, and pulling it out in patches. They were all sitting on the porch drinking beer, and they had that knife out. Bobby made me lick his mom’s bottom at knife point, and then he made me suck her toes. They were laughing and calling me names. One of them held me at gun point with a 9 mm.
FC: Now where did they have you sleeping?
MW: In the shed. They told me there were no n—-rs allowed in the trailer.
FC: What male members of the group raped you?
MW: Danny (Combs) and Bobby (Brewster).
I don’t know what was going through the minds of the prosecutor or the grand jury members when they heard Megan’s testimony, but to me this is clear evidence of racism motivating the defendants’ criminal acts. I can’t see how a prior relationship of whatever kind with one of the defendants washes away the slurs and racial animus they directed toward Megan, which is all the evidence you need to prove the commission of a bias or hate crime. Those statements are direct evidence of the defendants’ motives. To me it’s a slam dunk, and I’m shocked that the prosecutor was unable to obtain an indictment of the defendants on charges of hate crimes.
I hate to cast aspersions on the prosecutor or the grand jury, but you have to wonder if political pressure has been brought to bear to keep this case hushed up as much as possible. Clearly, a prosecution of Megan’s white assailants for hate crimes would attract more media attention than assault and kidnapping charges. Frankly, this entire situation stinks, and you don’t need to be a lawyer to catch a whiff of the stench emanating from the Prosecutor’s office. His efforts to silence Ms. Williams, and to sabotage her march and rally, is cause enough for the suspicion that his own motives in not obtaining an indictment for hate crimes are politically or racially tainted.