Hate Crime Charges in Week-Long Kidnap, Torture of West Virginia Woman

[Milady M]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296429,00.htmlThis is what happens when you inbreed people!

[MuffyBee]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296429,00.htmlThis is what happens when you inbreed people!

Hello Milady M and welcome to Scared Monkeys.  This is a horrendous crime.  I cannot begin to fathom how people could do this to someone no matter what their color, religion, nationality or belief.  No conscience-and that is scary as heck.  Not only did they do mean, terrible things, they did them over time.  She is fortunate to have escaped with her life, but sadly she will have to live with the memories of the torture she endured    I wonder who made the call that tipped off the police?  Thank goodness someone did.

[Milady M]

Hello Miss MuffyBee , Thank you for welcoming me to the forms.  To me it is completely mind bogging that a group of people would commit this type of crime. We hear from time to time about 2 people doing such things and sometimes 3. But for this many people together and for days at a time? Hate has no color and it crosses all boarders .Whether one is rich or poor.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296429,00.htmlThis is what happens when you inbreed people!

Hello Milady M and welcome to Scared Monkeys.  This is a horrendous crime.  I cannot begin to fathom how people could do this to someone no matter what their color, religion, nationality or belief.  No conscience-and that is scary as heck.  Not only did they do mean, terrible things, they did them over time.  She is fortunate to have escaped with her life, but sadly she will have to live with the memories of the torture she endured    I wonder who made the call that tipped off the police?  Thank goodness someone did.

[MuffyBee]

Authorities Opt Against Hate Charges in W. Va. Torture Case
Prosecutors Decide to Pursue State Charges with Stiffer Penalties
By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER
BIG CREEK, W.Va., Sept. 12, 2007
Authorities decided Wednesday not to pursue hate crime charges in the brutal kidnapping and weeklong torture of a black woman in Logan County, instead deciding to pursue state charges with stiffer penalties. more...

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3593680&page=1

[mrs. red]

This is made worse by the fact that the woman actually was held on murder charges before...

[MuffyBee]

This is made worse by the fact that the woman actually was held on murder charges before...

Mrs. Red ~  I had read that too   it's amazing the victim came away with her life.  What if someone hadn't tipped the police off soon enough and what if she hadn't been able to walk to the door?  I wonder how much longer she could have lasted?  It's just terrible.  The thought of the whole is terrible.

[Milady M]

You know come to think about it. These low life's make the KKK look like Boy Scouts.. Good Grief!

[MsVada]

Milady, welcome to the forum. 

I cannot believe people really do this stuff either.  I am glad that someone found her in time too.  I hope that since she had the will to survive the torture for a week, that she'll have the strength to move on and put this all behind her as best as humanly possible. 

This is when we need the "salem witch hunt" to still be around and punish these monsters.

[MuffyBee]

New Charges Expected In W.Va. Torture Case
Six Accused Of Torturing Black Woman May Face More Kidnapping, Sexual Assault Charges
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/17/national/main3269204.shtml

LOGAN, W.Va., Sept. 17, 2007
Some of the six people accused of torturing a woman for days in rural West Virginia are expected to face additional kidnapping and sexual assault charges, the county prosecutor said Monday.

Four of the defendants had been scheduled to appear in court Monday, but a dispute over which magistrate would hear the cases postponed their hearings, prosecutor Brian Abraham said. Two of the county's three magistrates were disqualified from one of the cases.

Three defendants also secured new defense attorneys, who were meeting with their clients Monday morning.

Abraham declined to elaborate on the new charges, except to say that they would be filed either Monday or Tuesday.
(snipped)
All six remained in custody on $100,000 cash bail each.
(snipped)

[MuffyBee]

Sep 19, 2007 6:34 am US/Central
List Of Horrors Grows In W. Va. Torture Case
http://keyetv.com/topstories/topstories_story_262073926.html
(snipped)
Sheriff's Deputy Rick Goodman testified Tuesday that Brewster told deputies that the six defendants were afraid to let Williams go because she might tell on them. They also talked about killing her.
------------------------------------------------------
This young woman is fortunate to have come away with her life.  Terrible things were done to her, but I think it wouldn't have been much longer and this group of hyenas would have killed her imo.  That's all I can think of.  The group acted like hyenas, circling a wounded creature   I still wonder who tipped the police off, which probably saved her life?  I doubt it was one of the six charged.  Maybe one of them bragged to someone what they were doing, and that person tipped the police off.

[MuffyBee]

Oct 23, 4:41 PM EDT

W.Va. Woman Speaks About Torture Ordeal
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WOMAN_TORTURED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER
Associated Press Writer
 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Megan Williams thought she was going to a party.

That's why she tagged along with a woman she hardly knew, up a remote southern West Virginia hollow to a run-down trailer surrounded by beer cans and broken-down furniture.

"But there wasn't no party," Williams said. "I realized I'd made a bad mistake."

For at least a week, authorities say, the 20-year-old black woman was kept captive in a shed, tortured, beaten, forced to eat rat, dog and human feces, and raped by six white men and women who taunted her with racial slurs.

"They just kept saying 'This is what we do to niggers down here,'" Williams told The Associated Press in one of her most extensive interviews since the shocking case made national headlines last month.
(snipped)
West Virginia does not have a death penalty, but the six suspects could spend the rest of their lives in prison if convicted of rape and kidnapping charges.

Still, Williams and her family want more. They want the case prosecuted as a hate crime, something authorities have so far stopped short of doing.

A coalition of civil rights organizations and black leaders are now uniting behind the Williams family, organizing a hate-crime awareness march for Nov. 3 in Charleston in hopes of pressuring prosecutors to act.

"This case deserves national concern and national outrage," said Malik Shabazz, co-founder of Black Lawyers for Justice.

Prosecutors have backed off state hate-crime charges, saying they only carry an additional 10-year maximum penalty and could complicate their case. For one, hate crimes typically involve strangers, and Williams knew one of the suspects. She filed a charge of domestic assault against him in July.
(snipped)
Suspects in the case have outlined a series of sexual crimes.

Statements from Frankie Brewster and her son Bobby Brewster allege that Williams was forced to perform oral sex on Frankie Brewster under threat of death, that she was forced to perform oral sex on Danny Combs at knifepoint, that she was made to lick their toes, raped and humiliated.

"They said I was never going to see my family again," Megan Williams said.

It was that fear that led her to cut her duct-tape constraints with a knife she had hidden away. She then hung her tiny arms out of the small window of the shed she was kept in, yelling for help.

Williams says "a guy named Eddie" heard her calls, and she believes he called for help. Within hours, deputies responded to an anonymous tip, and came to the Brewster trailer asking for Williams by name.

She has no doubt that if the police hadn't shown up, she would be dead.
(snipped)

[MuffyBee]

Feb 15, 3:44 AM EST

4th Person Pleads in W.Va. Torture Case


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WOMAN_TORTURED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

LOGAN, W.Va. (AP) -- A fourth defendant has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the suspected torture of a young black woman who authorities say was held captive last summer for days.

Frankie Brewster, 49, faces 10 to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to second-degree sexual assault, prosecutor Brian Abraham said Thursday. In exchange for her plea, charges of assault during the commission of a felony, kidnapping and conspiracy were dropped, Abraham said.

Brewster was accused of forcing 20-year-old Megan Williams to perform oral sex on her.

Authorities say Williams was held captive for days at Brewster's trailer in Big Creek, where she was forced to eat animal feces, sexually assaulted and stabbed. She was rescued Sept. 8 after an anonymous caller alerted authorities.

Abraham said Brewster's age was a factor in the plea agreement.

"A 10- to 25-year sentence may result in life for her," he said. "It's certainly a very lengthy sentence."

Authorities allege that Brewster's son, 24-year-old Bobby Brewster, threatened Williams if she did not perform oral sex on his mother.

Bobby Brewster is charged with second-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, malicious assault, assault during the commission of a felony and conspiracy. He and his mother were among seven defendants charged in the case. Three pleaded guilty this month; the others have denied wrongdoing.

The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother, Carmen, agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams has said she wanted people to know what her daughter endured.