Johnson City has agreed to pay $28 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by women who alleged police failed to investigate their sexual assaults and conspired to shield a serial rapist from justice.
The settlement, which city officials called the most expensive in Johnson City’s history, must be approved by a federal judge before the process of distributing funds to a potential pool of more than 400 victims, including children, can begin.
The settlement brings to a close a lawsuit that surfaced a series of explosive allegations against the Johnson City Police Department since it was first filed in June 2023.
Among the suit’s allegations is that police violated federal sex trafficking laws and engaged in a conspiracy involving kickbacks to protect Sean Williams, a former Johnson City businessman now implicated in scores of sex crimes against women and children.
‘A punch in the gut’: women accuse Johnson City officials of victim-blaming in serial rapist case
Williams was arrested in 2023 while sleeping in his car in North Carolina. His arrest led to the recovery of images that showed Williams sexually abusing 67 women and children inside his Johnson City condo, court records said. Included among the images are victims who reported their assaults to Johnson City police to no avail, the lawsuit alleged.
Williams is now behind bars awaiting a Feb. 24 sentencing for three counts of producing child pornography and one count of escaping federal custody. Federal prosecutors earlier this month submitted their sentencing recommendation of 95 years in prison.
As part of the lawsuit’s settlement, claims involving the conduct of the police department and individual current and former police officers related to Williams — including allegations of corruption, bribery and sex trafficking — will be dismissed and the plaintiffs in the case will submit legal filings that say they faced a substantial risk they could not meet their burden of proof for those allegations.
“Our clients could not be more pleased,” read a statement from Vanessa Baehr-Jones, an attorney with California-based Advocates for Survivors of Abuse.
“This marks a step forward, not only for them but for their community, as they achieve a measure of closure and can begin the healing process,” the statement said. Brentwood based attorney Heather Moore Collins with HMC Civil Rights Law and San Francisco attorney Elizabeth Kramer also served as attorneys in the case.
City officials, who voted to approve the settlement Thursday, said they did so to avoid a potentially “financially catastrophic” judgement. The $28 million will be paid in part by insurance and partly out of the city budget and will not “disrupt or threaten to disrupt ongoing city services,” Johnson City Commissioner Joe Wise said Thursday.
“Based on the potential class action, and the number of horrific crimes committed by Sean Williams, Johnson City was faced with substantial financial risk if this matter proceeded to trial,” a statement from Johnson City said. “While the settlement is significant, it limits Johnson City’s potential exposure which could have been financially catastrophic.”
In an emailed statement, current and former officers named in the suit said the accusations against them were “heinous” and “absolutely false.”
“We want to be absolutely clear, no officers ever engaged in any corrupt conduct of any kind, whatsoever,” the joint statement said. “They never turned a blind eye to Williams in any way.”
“The heinous corruption and sex trafficking claims were absolutely false and the individuals are pleased that Plaintiffs seem to have finally acknowledged the inability to meet the burden of proof,” the statement said.
Johnson City still faces two additional lawsuits related to police misconduct involving victims of sexual assault and a potential federal corruption probe.
One suit was brought last year by a woman who alleged Williams pushed her out a fifth story window causing catastrophic and permanent injuries in a failed sexual assault attempt.
Report: Johnson City Police failed sexual assault victims
Johnson City police did not investigate, arrest, or charge Williams, intentionally destroyed evidence and allowed Williams to destroy evidence in exchange for cash, the lawsuit alleges – echoing claims in the now settled lawsuit that Johnson City police were paid to turn the other way.
Kateri Dahl, a former federal prosecutor who served as a liaison with Johnson City Police Department, filed a separate whistleblower lawsuit in 2022 alleging police failed to investigate sexual assault allegations against Williams then ended Dahl’s contract as she pressed them to take action.
“Johnson City taxpayers can make their own conclusions as to why their government would pay $28 million to settle claims if they are ‘absolutely false,’” Hugh Eastwood, Dahl’s attorney, said in a statement.
The Johnson City Police Department is also the subject of a federal public corruption probe related to its handling of Williams, previous filings in the now-settled case revealed.
Attorneys representing the women who filed suit, referred to in legal filings as “Jane Does,” turned over 520 pages of emails and attachments to the “prosecution team for the federal public corruption investigation of the Johnson City Police Department,” court records said..
The Department of Justice has, for more than a year, declined to confirm or deny any existing investigation.