GreekChat.com Forums - Authorities Opt Against Hate Charges in W. VA. Torture Case

Have you seen local coverage of this atrocious story in your media?

WEST VIRGINIA TORTURE VICTIM DESCRIBES HORROR, WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 27-OCTOBER 3, 2007
by CASH MICHAELS
The Wilmington Journal
Originally posted 10/2/2007

Megan Williams, the Charleston, West Virginia black woman who was allegedly held captive, beaten, raped and made to eat rat and dog feces by six white career criminals, has told her chilling story to Logan County investigators.

“They said it was because I was colored,” Williams 20, is quoted in a written statement to authorities. “They said they don’t like black people and they said they were going to hang me.”

As a result, all six suspects – Frankie Lee Brewster, 49; her son, Bobby Ray, 24, who authorities believe had some sort of relationship with the alleged victim; Danny Combs, 20; George Messer, 27; Karen Burton, 46, and her daughter Alisha, 22 – are now charged with first-degree kidnapping, which carries up to life in prison; and at least one-count each of first-degree sexual offense, which could garner up to 35 years behind bars upon conviction.

To the chagrin of several black leaders including the NAACP, prosecutors are holding off filing hate crime charges, which carry only a maximum of ten years, in favor of the bigger charges.

Williams, who, according to members of her family has some mental challenges, was not held captive for a week, as many had first thought, but for over a month at a broken down mobile home trailer in the mountainous, predominately white Big Creek community of Logan County, according to authorities.

In probable cause hearings held last week, there was testimony that Williams had a “social relationship” with Bobby Ray Brewster, who had spent time in jail after a July 18 arrest on a domestic battery charge, were Williams was the alleged victim.

When he was released from jail on August 2, Williams voluntarily went to his home to see him, investigators say.

Almost immediately, she became a prisoner.

“Bobby stabbed me in the leg with a butcher [knife],” Williams told authorities in her written statement.

“They wouldn’t let me take a bath in the house and him and George Messer poured hot scalding water on me. I was scared of Danny. Danny had a knife up to my neck and raped me.”

Allegedly, Combs and Messer did more than that to the helpless young woman.

“George Messer poured a can of wax on me—him and Danny Combs did,” she wrote.

Three of the suspects are women, and yet the men allegedly forced young Megan to degrade herself with them too.

“They made me lick [Ms. Frankie Brewster] for nothing. If I didn’t do it, they would [hurt] me.”

Williams also alleged that Karen Burton choked her, and, along with her daughter Alisha, yanked out patches of her hair with scissors saying, “This is what we do to niggers around here.”

The six suspects, who have collectively racked up 108 criminal charges since 1991, are also alleged to have kept Megan Williams captive in a filthy shed without food or water; choked her with a cable around her neck, causing visible burns; broken her arm in two places; forced her to perform oral sex; beat her until she was black and blue around her face and forced to urinate blood; lick up her own blood after stabbing her left leg; drink toilet water, urine and eat rat and dog feces; and threatened to kill her if she tried to escape.

If local The Register-Herald newspaper is to be believed, they were capable of it.

“Frankie Brewster, who reportedly told a magistrate the captors had planned to eventually kill Williams, was charged in 1994 with first-degree murder in the shooting death of the 84-year-old mother of her live-in boyfriend,” the paper reported. “She was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and wanton endangerment with a firearm, and served five years in prison. ??”

“Ten years ago, her son, Bobby Brewster, shot and killed the live-in boyfriend,” the paper continued. “But since he was only 14 then, it was handled in juvenile court and records were sealed. ?? Last March, Bobby Brewster was accused of attacking his mother with a machete.”

“??Karen Burton has a record dating back to 1991, mostly DUI, public intoxication, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct charges,” The Register-Herald reported. “Her daughter, Alisha Burton, and another suspect, George Messer, were indicted in August 2006 after they allegedly assaulted and robbed a Logan County woman in her home. The charges were dropped in April when prosecutors could not find the victim. But a month later, Alisha Burton was accused of striking Messer with a shovel. ?? The sixth suspect, Danny Combs, was arrested in August 2006 on charges ranging from unlawful wounding to domestic battery. ??”

It was an anonymous tip received by the Logan County Sheriff’s Dept. that sent deputies to the Big Creek trailer home of Frankie Brewster on Sept. 8 searching for the black woman.

Brewster, who was sitting outside at the time, allegedly told deputies that she was alone, and got up to walk inside.

That is when a clearly traumatized Megan Williams suddenly staggered out of the mobile home, arms outstretched, begging the deputies to “Help me!”

Charges against Frankie Brewster include three counts of battery and giving false information to law enforcement during a felony investigation, in addition to the kidnapping and first-degree sexual offense charges.

Her son, Bobby Ray, faces kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and sexual assault during the commission of a felony.

Karen Burton is charged with 13 counts of battery, in addition to malicious wounding, kidnapping and sexual assault.

Her daughter, Alisha, has been tagged with eleven counts of battery and malicious wounding.eorge Messer faces six counts of battery, along with kidnapping and sexual assault, and Danny Combs has to defend himself against three counts of sexual assault, in addition to malicious wounding.

Now that probable cause has been established, it will be up to a Logan County grand jury to hand down indictments.

Meanwhile a local television station is reporting that members of the New Black Panther Party want to, “to assist the family of Megan Williams and to organize blacks to help them combat racism and hate crimes.”

Reaction to the torture case has been strong.

“If these people are convicted of the charges they face, they should never again be allowed to see the outside of prison,” The Register-Herald editorial stated.

“This goes beyond prejudice,” Rev. Audie Murphy Sr., president of the Logan County branch of the NAACP, told The Associated Press. “It’s actually evil in its heightened form.”

The alleged crime has even captured the attention of Congress, where West Virginia Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd expressed his outrage.

“Make no mistake about it,” the veteran U.S. senator’s Sept. 13 statement began, “What happened in Logan County to Megan Williams is a despicable outrage.”

“There is simply no place in our society for this kind of inhuman violence and hatred against any man, woman, or child. Those responsible for causing such terrible pain and suffering, both physical and emotional, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and be severely punished,” Sen. Byrd continued.

“No human being should ever be treated with such cruelty and disrespect. My heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to Megan Williams.”

In an unexpected yet dramatic twist to the harrowing story, the alleged rape and torture victim was arraigned last week immediately after the probable cause hearing on numerous bad check charges, some that go as far back as May 2006.

Megan Williams is charged in Summers, Raleigh and Greenbrier counties with eleven misdemeanor writing worthless charges, one misdemeanor count of obtaining under false pretenses, and a felony count of failure to appear in Summers County Circuit Court.

With her foster mother, Carmen Williams, outraged, Williams, still recovering from her torture injuries, was tearfully forced to stay in a Kanawha County courthouse holding cell until arraignment.

She reportedly clutched a teddy bear that someone had given to her.

There is more to those bad check charges than meets the eye, family members told WLIB-AM’s Imhotep Gary Byrd on his “Mindflight” radio program in New York Sunday night.

Jeff Burwell, Williams’ cousin, told the program that the mentally challenged young woman could not have gotten around to three mountainous West Virginia counties without help and transportation.

Megan doesn’t own a car, yet one of the bad checks she allegedly wrote was to an auto parts store, Burwell points out. He believes people who knew how to manipulate what many believe to be a “slow” young black woman, were actually the ones who tricked her into fronting bad checks for them.

Robert Williams, Megan’s uncle who lives in West Virginia, said his niece is indeed easily manipulated, and that was undoubtedly used against her.

Both Williams and Burwell said it is important that Megan’s story stay in the news so that the community can support her as they are doing the Jena 6 in Louisiana.

Unlike the Duke lacrosse case, they add, the evidence here is overwhelming and indisputable.

http://wilmingtonjournal.blackpressu...D=82719&sID=12