Sean Williams appears in two booking photos. (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation; Blount County)
Multiple Tennessee police officers took large sums of money from an accused rapist — whose victims included children — in order to protect him from criminal prosecution, a lawsuit filed in federal court alleges.
The shocking allegations are the latest wrinkle in the often dramatic, yearslong, multi-chapter effort to bring Sean Williams, 52, to justice.
Women in Johnson City had complained to law enforcement about the wealthy man’s allegedly predatory behavior since at least November 2019, according to the 85-page filing obtained by Law&Crime.
The defendant was ultimately arrested in April on wholly unrelated drug charges. In September, he was indicted on myriad state and federal child sex offenses. The apparently slow pace of those concomitant investigations was due, at least in part, by a local law enforcement conspiracy of cash and silence, the lawsuit claims.
“For years, Sean Williams drugged and raped women and sexually exploited children in Johnson City, Tennessee, and for years, officers of the Johnson City Police Department (‘JCPD’) let him get away with it,” the second amended complaint begins.
Filed by nine unnamed Does in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the lawsuit alleges that “at least eight” reports about Williams drugging and raping women in his downtown apartment were swept under the rug by numerous police officers, who, instead, treated the business owner and sports car collector like he was “untouchable.”
”In exchange for turning a blind eye, JCPD officers took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from Williams, all while refusing to take meaningful steps to protect women and children in Johnson City and to stop his known sexually predatory behavior,” the filing continues. “JCPD was not only turning a blind eye to Williams’ crimes, but also engaging in a pattern and practice of discriminatory conduct towards women who reported rape and sexual assault by Williams.”
The lawsuit claims that Johnson City police, at the highest level, were knowing participants in a sex trafficking operation.
“Defendants effectively accepted payments from Williams in furtherance of the conspiracy through the corrupt use of search warrants and other unlawful collection efforts, including an extortion scheme,” the filing reads. “Said warrants were facially obtained and used to seize unlawfully obtained currency or narcotics assets but were in fact quid pro quo payments.”
In April 2021, Williams was indicted on a relatively minor federal ammunition charge for allegedly having stored dozens of rounds in a safe – an alleged violation due to a former felony conviction.
For two years, the defendant was on the run, but somehow managed to elude arrest at least twice. In May 2021, officers visited his apartment and spoke with him – but left empty-handed. Then, in April 2022, Williams allegedly became irate with staff at the Washington County Register of Deeds over the filing of a property document. Again, local police were called; again, no arrest was made. Later, he even managed to sell his soon-to-be infamous downtown apartment.
The lawsuit claims officers tipped Williams off in various instances – and otherwise arranged for him to evade capture.
All the while, then-Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kateri “Kat” Dahl claims to have been trying to enlarge her case against the wanted man. Previously hired as a consultant with Johnson City, her contract was not renewed amidst her pressure campaign on local law enforcement to charge Williams – who owned a respected concrete and glass business – over the alleged drugging and raping of women in his downtown apartment and sports car-filled garage.
Dahl’s initial investigation, and the resulting ammunition indictment, occurred after a woman allegedly fell out of the defendant’s fifth-floor window during a party. Such soirees obtained the dust of hyperlocal legend – they were allegedly cocaine-fueled; they were rumored to be linked to a Williams-involved drug dealing scheme.
The woman who fell, Mikayla Evans, survived. At first, there was an attempted homicide investigation over the incident. In time, that case was closed. But Dahl smelled smoke and had begun interviewing women who claimed to have been raped by Williams. Her suspicions were buoyed by what was allegedly turned up during the initial search of Williams’ apartment on the same day of Evans’ fall.
“On September 19, 2020, JCPD officers also found and seized a handwritten note from Williams’ nightstand with the word ‘Raped’ written atop a list of 23 women’s first names in black ink,” the federal lawsuit reads. “This list included the first names of some of the Plaintiffs and class members.”
In April of this year, a Western Carolina University police officer found Williams nearly passed out in a car on a park property the school owned. During a search of the car, the officer allegedly found exceedingly large amounts cocaine and methamphetamine. The fugitive eventually made his way back to the Volunteer State.
The arresting agency, however, also obtained search warrants for Williams’ digital devices – and allegedly found evidence that showed Williams raping at least 52 different women in his by-then former apartment. Tennessee authorities later took stock of those alleged discoveries and obtained additional search warrants – allegedly finding evidence that Williams had also raped multiple children as well.
The defendant is now facing over two dozen combined federal and state child sex crimes – including child pornography charges.
But, the lawsuit claims, the later-obtained evidence of child abuse had been in Johnson City’s possession for nearly two years.
“[I]n September 2020, JCPD had seized digital devices from Williams’ apartment which contained images and videos of Williams sexually assaulting women, as well as child sexual abuse material,” the filing reads. “On information and belief, JCPD had either intentionally or negligently failed to search these devices—or worse—had corruptly concealed this egregious evidence against Williams.”
According to the Does, two Johnson City officers even allowed Williams to delete some of the incriminating child sexual abuse material in September 202o. That since-abandoned cover-up was facilitated by officers who “took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from Williams’ safe,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint names six individual law enforcement defendants, an additional 13 unnamed officers, and the city itself.
But the Williams story is not entirely linear.
The civil lawsuit was first filed on June 21. He was indicted by Washington County and federal prosecutors on Sept. 11.
In October, Williams escaped from federal custody while being transported through Kentucky. He was able to remain on the run, again, for a little over a month before being captured in Florida.
Last week, the defendant attempted to commit suicide while in the Blount County Jail in Maryville, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
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