All of the suspects pled guilty...wtf is going on here?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/C...index.html

From Dugald McConnell
CNN

(CNN) -- A 22-year-old woman whose claims that she was abused in a trailer in rural West Virginia in 2007 helped send six people to prison now says she made up the story, her lawyer said Wednesday.


Attorney Byron Potts says his client is not being pressured to recant her story.

"She is recanting her entire story," attorney Byron Potts told reporters in Columbus, Ohio, about his client, Megan Williams, who moved there after the incident. "She says it did not happen. She fabricated it."

He added, "She wanted to get back at her boyfriend. She was mad at him."

In 2007, police acting on a tip found the black woman in a trailer with cuts and bruises. She said she had been stabbed in the leg and beaten, sexually assaulted, forced to eat feces and subjected to a racial slur by her white captors.

The suspects included a mother and son, a separate mother and daughter, and two men. All are still jailed, according to the prosecutor who handled the case.

The incident, which drew extensive media coverage, stirred outrage around the country. Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton called for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime.

Last year, all six defendants pleaded guilty and were given terms of up to 40 years in prison.

Potts said his client was coming forward "to right the wrong perpetrated on these six individuals." He added that she told him all her injuries except for the bruises on her face were self-inflicted. The bruises, he said, were from an altercation she had had with her then-boyfriend before the incident in question.

Potts described Williams' feelings as "total remorse; that's why she's coming forward. She is remorseful for having these people spend time in jail."

Asked if she was being pressured to recant, he said, "No, she's not being pressured into this."

Williams had been expected to speak herself, but Potts said she would not appear before the news media because she was afraid for her safety.

He said she was "fully aware" that she might face criminal charges, "but she still wanted to go forward with this."

Brian Abraham, the former Logan County prosecutor who handled the case, defended the convictions. "The case wasn't based on her statements," he said, noting that Williams never testified in the case. "The case was based on the evidence discovered by the police, including the confessions of the six defendants."

He added, "All six of them have been in jail without filing appeals. If they file something afterwards, the evidence was pretty overwhelming for the charges on which they were convicted."

The current county prosecutor, John Bennett, said he could not comment on whether the case would be reopened. He said he represented one of the suspects in 2007 and so would let a judge decide how to handle the potential conflict of interest.

Sharpton said, "If they are being held under false information and she misled authorities, and if the authorities went solely on her testimony, then they should be released." But he added, "If there are other circumstances around the recanting, we should know what they are."

I'm confused.

Shut.the.hell.UP!!! There's gotta be more to this if all six of them plead guilty and haven't filed any appeals. Didn't come out that this chick was developmentally retarded or something?
[Edited 10/22/09 20:30pm]

Wait! Is this the woman ppl were so up in arms about a while ago. She had been tortured and there wasn't as much coverage as their should've been?
[Edited 10/22/09 20:25pm]

SCNDLS said:

I cannot wrap my brain around this. All six pled guilty and are currently doing jail time. Now she says she made it all up because she was mad at her bf? If that was the case wouldn't she have accused him instead? None of this adds up.

That's messed up. What's the punishment for lying about something like this and people spending years in prison for it? It's as bad as the fabricated crime, if all this is true. A bit fishy though, like others have said.

sounds like some kind of intimidation going on to me Shit just don't sound right

Is it possible we just find it so hard to believe someone could go to these lengths in their deception?

Is nobody concerned that people may have been sentenced and done jail time for something at this point it appears they didn't do?

ultrablue said:

Completely.

The accused were facing not only an enraged populace, but the possibility also exists that they were advised to cop a plea to avoid an even harsher sentence.

so she made them pay...
[Edited 10/23/09 5:21am]

dude shouldna been nervous...he's a daggone professional fo chrisssakes!!!
[Edited 10/23/09 5:15am]

ultrablue said:

Ummmm, they've ALL pleaded GUILTY and have not filed any appeals. So, no I ain't concerned at all. That girl is obviously not stable and that was reported when the story first came out if I recall correctly.

Mars23 said:

often happens. hope this gal gets 1) help; and 2) punished/sued

Looks like her retraction is the real lie to me.

um...so if she was lying then why the hell did these people plead guilty?

DesireeNevermind said:

it's not unimaginable that an innocent person would accept a plea, especially when there is "overwhelming evidence" involved...most prosecutors have unlimited resources while the average defense has a much tougher row to hoe...there are many innocent people doing time...some could have persued 'justice' and ended up serving a life term or accept the plea and get out in a few years...


all that being said, this case reeeks...I just read that she dated one of the accused...maybe that has something to do with her recanting...and, according to the article, is "developmentally challenged"...I don't know how challenged she is, but that's an awfully detailed scenario for her to make make up, it would seem...

roodboi said:

but 40 damn years? I mean maybe if it was 1 and you cut your losses...but 40? hell nah, i would be goin out guns a blazin and takin that heffa out wit me.

DesireeNevermind said:

40 or the rest of my life...no way around it, dont pass go, dont collect $200...I'm taking the 40

and it says 'up to 40'...so they'll no doubt be out sooner...

roodboi said:

One . . . maybe . . . not SIX different "innocent" people.
[Edited 10/23/09 14:45pm]

SCNDLS said:

yeah, I agree...I may have to eat these words...but them fuckers did it...

roodboi said:

I agree-I think she's being taken advantage of again Isn't she MR or something?

so the dudes and the chicks raped her?

DesireeNevermind said:

yes and the story was kinda swept under the rug until Al and them got it

nurseV said:

OH THAT'S NAS TEE

roodboi said:

Totally

Convicted Woman Says W. Va. Woman was Tortured

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A woman imprisoned for her role in the 2007 kidnapping and torture of a black woman by seven white men and women said Friday the victim wasn't telling the truth when she denied this week that the attack occurred.

Frankie Brewster told WCHS-TV in Charleston that multiple crimes were committed against Megan Williams during the attack in West Virginia's rural Logan County, about 50 miles south of Charleston.

An attorney representing Williams said Wednesday that she is now recanting statements incriminating Brewster, her son Bobby and five others. All seven pleaded guilty and six are serving lengthy prison terms.

Brian Abraham, the Logan County prosecutor in 2007, also has dismissed Williams' new story, saying the convictions were based on the defendants' own statements and physical evidence rather than what Williams said.

Williams originally said her captors, including boyfriend Bobby Brewster, beat her, raped her, forced her to drink urine and eat feces, poured hot wax on her and taunted her with racial slurs in a trailer in Logan County. Williams was rescued after a passer-by heard cries from the shed where she was kept and an anonymous caller tipped off sheriff's deputies.

Brewster is rejecting Williams' new version of events.

"It did happen," Brewster said during the interview at the Lakin Correctional Center, where she is serving 10 to 25 years. "All of us participated."

Brewster denied that race or Williams' relationship with her son started the series of crimes. Rather, she blamed a co-defendant who accused Williams of stealing.

While Brewster would not detail her own actions, she acknowledged having improper contact with Williams. Brewster pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault in the case.

Brewster also said that race wasn't a factor and she said some of the crimes did not occur at her trailer home.

"I just want the truth out and for people take responsibility for what they did," Brewster said.

The Associated Press has asked, through prison officials and lawyers, to speak with all six prisoners. So far, only Bobby Brewster has said, through prison officials, that he will not give interviews.

http://www.foxnews.com/st...74,00.html

babynoz said:

A plea bargain is a reduced sentence. What would be your reason for filing an appeal? You took the plea bargain because you didn't want to chance more time?
That's not appealable. You could have opted for a trial hoping to win and go free.

Mstrustme said:

Case closed.

SCNDLS said:

captial CO-SIGN!!!!! ruthless mofos.