Posted on 10/21/2009 3:45:24 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
Shades of Tawana Brawley.
The Rev. Al Sharpton revealed Wednesday that he gave a $1,000 Christmas gift to a black West Virginia woman who claimed she had been gang-raped by a group of white men - and is now recanting her story.
Only this time, Sharpton wants cops to investigate whether Megan Williams "fabricated her story" and the convicted men sprung "if they are being held under false information and she misled authorities."
Williams, 22, told cops in 2007 she escaped from a ramshackle trailer near Charleston, W.V., where she was held captive for a week - and where she was raped, tortured, and forced to eat her own feces.
Seven suspects pleaded guilty, and all but one are now serving long jail terms.
In a statement, Sharpton said he visited Williams after her horrific story broke and gave her some of his "personal money" after her supporters told him "she had no resources for Christmas."
Sharpton said that when Williams' lawyer notified him that she was changing her story, he immediately wrote to West Virginia prosecutors, asking them to "vindicate any wrongfully convicted individuals."
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
The way our justice system works, their factual innocence will have no bearing on them getting freed from prison.
Gosh what a novel idea! thanks Al - that's awful white of you...
dumbass
Does he know the folks in jail are white?
What I don’t get are the guilty pleas.
Perhaps due to prosecutorial overreach and misconduct? Just a guess...
I wonder if the “Megan Williams” story along with the Duke case and many others will be part of a Rush/Sharpton lawsuit? Looks like Al has a lot of dirty baggage. He had better think twice before suing anybody. $1000 Christmas present? Sure Al we believe you. Hahahahaha.
She recants herstory and said this didn’t happen...hmmmm...Al jumps in and says let the perpetrators go...hmmm... they all confessed, evidence points to them....hmmm were these guys.....Black? (in my best Church Lady voice). Anybody more informed than me,would you answer.
(no link)
Sharpton at Megan Williams rally Activist calls for hate crime charges Civil rights leaders work together despite differences, audience told
Charleston Gazette (WV) - Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Author: Gary A. Harki
gharki@wvgazette.com
National activist the Rev. Al Sharpton showed up at a Tuesday rally in support of torture victim Megan Williams , saying he believes hate crime charges must be brought in the case.
“As long as you rape and call our daughters the n***** word and don’t handle it. You can bet we will be back in town,” he said.
Police say Williams, 20, was raped, beaten and tortured by six Logan County residents earlier this year. Williams is black; the six people accused of hurting her are white.
Williams didn’t attend Tuesday’s rally at the First Baptist Church in Charleston. Logan County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Abraham asked her not to attend. He has repeatedly expressed concerns that media attention may affect potential jurors in the case.
Sharpton entered the room to a round of applause in the middle of a speech by Malik Shabazz, leader of the group Black Lawyers for Justice and a legal adviser to Williams. He left a short time later and entered again with Carmen Williams, Megan’s mother, at his side.
“I think that it was important to be here tonight because I think that what happened to Megan Williams was a disgrace to this country,” Sharpton said. “When they had [a march last month] I couldn’t be here. People began taking positions on ideology and personality.”
Most members of a local group, the Charleston Black Ministerial Alliance, did not participate in the November march, citing Shabazz’s involvement. Other than the Rev. Paul Dunn, who hosted the rally, there appeared to be no alliance members present Tuesday.
Those involved in the civil rights movement, from the days of Martin Luther King until now, have not always seen eye to eye ideologically, Sharpton said. But that has not kept them from marching and rallying together.
“To reduce this to what you feel about one of the leaders is to purposely distract from the issue at hand,” he said. “Quit making rationalizations. If you are scared, say you are scared. ... Nowhere in the movement does it say you have to have the same ideology to be on the same stage.”
(snip)
Minister Hashim Nzinga, national chief of staff for the New Black Panther Party, said everyone should appreciate the fact that God sent Shabazz to assist Megan Williams in her time of need.
He said Williams had a right to be at the rally, and said Abraham, the Logan County prosecutor, told Megan not to fix her hair because it might damage her case, he said.
“We don’t give a damn about your justice system. She had to be healed,” Nzinga said. “Some people commit suicide after this. ... Every time you see her she’s going to look good. We are going to fix her and then we are going to fix you because you are out of your mind.”
Shabazz began his speech by drawing parallels between the Bible’s account of Jewish enslavement by the Egyptians and black enslavement by Americans.
“We are not just n******. We are a chosen people from an almighty God,” he said.
“Our black people in West Virginia need someone to speak for them.”
Characterizing the speakers there from out of state as outsiders is wrong, Shabazz said.
“Malik Shabazz is not racist. Racism existed here before I got here,” he said. “When Megan Williams said, ‘I have been raped.’ They put Megan on trial first before Bobbie Brewster or Frankie Brewster.”
Bobby Brewster, 24; Frankie Brewster, 49; Danny J. Combs, 20; George A. Messer, 27; Karen Burton, 46; and her daughter, Alisha Burton, 23, are all charged with various crimes against Williams.
Shabazz said there had been signs that Abraham had decided to file some hate crime charges in the case.
“We will not be backing down until hate crime charges are charged,” he said. “Our people should not have games played with them. ... Do blacks have rights that whites are duty-bound to respect in West Virginia?”
That Williams was hanging out with Bobby Brewster before she was tortured is irrelevant, Shabazz said.
“We are all entitled to a mistake. But a mistake shouldn’t lead to torture,” he said.
Money raised by the march had been used to put Williams into therapy, Shabazz said.
Sharpton said he had problems getting a plane in and out of Charleston on Tuesday, but he had been determined to make the trip. He said Megan Williams ‘ parents were on his radio show and personally asked him to come.
Sharpton said he spent a few minutes with Megan Williams on Tuesday, and planned to ask for donations for Megan every day through Christmas on his radio show broadcast in New York.
Sharpton then gave Carmen Williams $1,000 in cash as a Christmas present to Megan. After he left, Shabazz got back on stage and began asking for donations for Williams.
Seven suspects pleaded guilty
Ask Contessa Brewer.
The guilty pleas are a common result when the accused are threatened with much more serious charges and convictions, unless they plead guilty to the lesser charges.
You know, good cop, bad cop. I live in W. Va., but this happens everywhere.
"That's when you shot the clerk."
"I shot the clerk?"
"You shot the clerk."
"I shot the clerk?!?">P> (Later at trial)
"And then the defendant said 'I shot the clerk.'"
An offer of one 10 year term against 5 consecutive life sentences.
It’s not about the crime.
It’s about playing it all out in the media AGAIN.
They lost a lot of credability on those and this is simply a CYA for future screw-ups they know will happen.
“and forced to eat her own feces.”
Why is this a part of most every rape hoax perpetrated by Black woman(Tawana Brawley too)?
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