A pretty remarkable story about a man named Sean Williams. Back in April, police in North Carolina found Williams sitting in his car, apparently passed out. They searched his car and found cocaine and heroine along with two thumb drives. They got warrants to search the thumb drives and found evidence of dozens of rapes:

“Within these files, your affiant has identified approximately 52 female victims which are depicted in digital images or videos being sexually assaulted by Williams,” Tennessee First Judicial District Criminal Investigator Mike Little wrote in his May 31 request for a search warrant.

“These assaults all appear to occur while the female victims were in an obvious state of unconsciousness and are identifiable as having occurred at Williams’s apartment at 200 E. Main Street in Johnson City…,” the narrative continues.

The other drive allegedly contained child porn. Police had stumbled upon a monster. It turned out that Williams was a fugitive from Tennessee who had been on the run for two years. But this is where the story takes a pretty disturbing turn. Nine different women had accused Williams of sexual assault before he went on the run. They claim that police did little to nothing with their cases. Lawyers for the nine women sued the Johnson City PD over it.

Prior to Williams’ attempted escape, lawyers representing nine “Jane Does,” or sexual assault victims who are remaining anonymous, filed a lawsuit against Johnson City arguing that Williams raped women “for years,” and “officers of the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD) let him get away with it.”…

The federal complaint alleges that between 2018 and 2021, Williams, “a known drug dealer and convicted felon,” conspired with a man named Alvaro Fernando Diaz-Vargas, who is described as “young and good looking” and an unnamed woman “to recruit local women and bring them directly to Williams’ garage and apartment, where he would drug and sexually assault them.”…

All the victims mentioned in the lawsuit allegedly became incapacitated after drinking or doing drugs at Williams’ apartment or with his accomplices. They also all allege that Williams tried to rape or assault them while they were incapacitated…

The complaint alleges that police “failed to investigate Williams’ crimes against women; knowingly failed to refer charges for prosecution and/or referred charges in a piecemeal and incomplete manner so as to undermine the prosecution; knowingly intimidated and dissuaded Plaintiffs from pursuing criminal charges; and… knowingly made false statements to Plaintiffs in an effort to obstruct and interfere with the criminal investigation.”

In 2020 a woman fell from a 5th floor window in Williams’ apartment and lived. Police arrived at the apartment but didn’t have a search warrant. When Williams ordered them to leave, they did, allegedly giving him time to hide drugs. This comes from the legal complaint:

Rather than secure Williams’ apartment while seeking a search warrant for an attempted homicide investigation, JCPD officers left.1 Williams then locked the front door behind them.

After the officers left, Jane Doe 5 witnessed Williams and Diaz-Vargas move and hide firearms and illicit drugs located throughout the apartment. Jane Doe 5 saw Williams and Diaz-Vargas place the items in a duffle bag and move them to the roof…

Jane Doe 5 also witnessed JCPD officers seize a safe from Williams’ apartment. Jane Doe 5 had previously seen large amounts of cash kept within the safe.

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.

Upon information and belief, none of the sexual assault victims who had reported Williams to JCPD were informed of this list, nor told whether their names appeared therein.

JCPD officers did not arrest Williams before leaving.

U.S. Attorney Kat Dahl got involved in the case and allegedly found members of the police force were not interested in pursuing the case despite the evidence.

As set forth in detail in SAUSA Dahl’s complaint, once Dahl began her investigation, JCPD officers took numerous steps to obstruct, attempt to obstruct, and/or to interfere with her investigation into Williams’ sexual assault crimes, including but not limited to the following:

a. Chief Turner’s dismissal of the “Raped” list, claiming that it did not demonstrate evidence of nonconsensual sex.

b. Chief Turner and Captain Peters’ dismissal of victims’ accounts, claiming that the victims were not credible despite the overwhelming evidence that Williams was drugging and raping women.

c. Detective Sparks falsely indicating to SAUSA Dahl that a victim was uncooperative, when in fact the victim wished to pursue charges against Williams…

k. JCPD officers, including Detective Sparks, refused to execute a valid federal arrest warrant for Williams approximately 30 times in the weeks after SAUSA Dahl obtained the warrant on April 13, 2021.

l. Upon information and belief, JCPD officers failed to arrest Williams on May 6, 2021, improperly alerting him to the arrest warrant before executing it and allowing him to remain inside his apartment. JCPD officers then left the premises, enabling Williams to abscond for the next two years. Williams’ unlawful flight was possible only because of JCPD’s knowing interference with SAUSA Dahl’s investigation.

So there were women claiming they’d been raped and the police found a list with the heading “raped” with a bunch of women’s names on it in the suspect’s apartment and still were somehow not convinced there might be a problem? That does seem a bit odd. Maybe there’s another side to this story but I’m having a hard time imagining what it could be.

This local news report is from last June when Williams’ name was still under seal.