New Sean Williams-related suit filed against Johnson City
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — A woman whose near-fatal plunge from downtown Johnson City resident Sean Williams’ fifth-floor apartment in 2020 indirectly led to Williams’ eventual sexual assault charges has sued Johnson City and numerous former and current police officers.
Mikayla Evans filed suit in federal court Thursday. The six-count complaint alleges that police failed to investigate her Sept. 19, 2020 fall properly and claims that by that point, police were already protecting Williams in exchange for monetary bribes.
Williams, 52, was indicted on a felon in possession of ammunition charge in April 2021 based on evidence collected when police searched his apartment while investigating Evans’ fall, which they initially probed as a suspected attempted homicide. The lawsuit also claims that “upon information and belief, Williams attempted to assault [Evans] and, during this altercation, pushed [her] out of his five-story apartment building window.”
Evans nearly died from injuries she sustained in the fall. Her lawsuit, filed by attorney Ashleigh Beer-Vineyard of Knoxville, claims she’s suffered from loss of income due to ongoing medical issues.
In essence, the complaint claims that by the time Evans met Williams at a party at a garage he owned near his apartment, the owner of Glass and Concrete Contracting was already engaged in a pattern of slipping women date rape drugs in drinks or other drugs and then sexually assaulting them in his apartment.
Since being captured in April 2023 after eluding authorities for nearly two years, Williams has been accused by authorities of committing more than 50 sexual assaults, recording those on cameras set up in his apartment, and keeping photo and video evidence on computers and digital devices he owned.
Computer files show 52 Sean Williams alleged rapes
He allegedly had devices with such evidence in his possession when he was arrested in North Carolina on April 30, 2023. A search warrant affidavit filed last summer reveals that those alleged assaults go back to at least 2019, and Williams was the subject of several sexual assault reports to Johnson City police, including before Evans’ incident.
Officers also seized computers when they searched Williams’ apartment during the Evans investigation but never filed a follow-up search warrant to view their contents.
A federal attorney who worked with the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD), Kat Dahl, allegedly pressed JCPD’s chief and top investigator to get a search warrant and check the computers after she was brought in to help prosecute the felon in possession case as it was a federal charge.
Dahl herself filed a federal wrongful termination suit against the city in June 2022, claiming she was retaliated against after pressing police to investigate claims of sexual assault against Williams more thoroughly. That suit is set for trial in Knoxville in September.
Evans’ complaint restates claims already made in yet another related lawsuit filed a year ago by multiple alleged rape victims of Williams.
Johnson City has denied all the allegations in the other suits, and while it hasn’t yet been served the Evans complaint, said it has reviewed the complaint and provided this statement:
“These claims are related to incidents from nearly 4 years ago, and the allegations are largely the same as those we continue to deny in other litigation. We have yet to see any evidence that supports allegations of corruption by the Johnson City Police Department and continue to welcome any investigation that could dispel such claims.”
Williams so far has been charged in both federal and state court with crimes related to three alleged recorded sexual assaults of children. Except for spending a month on the run after escaping from a prison transport van in October 2023, Williams has been jailed since April 30, 2023, with most of that time in federal custody.
His first federal trial on escape and attempted escape charges begins July 16 in Greeneville. He also faces federal production of child pornography and federal drug charges, along with state sexual assault charges.
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Evans’ suit claims police “did not investigate, arrest, or charge Williams when women reported being drugged and raped by Williams. Instead, defendants accepted a weekly bribe of at least $2,000.00 from Williams’ accomplice. Defendants willfully ignored reports, intimidated and belittled the victims, and discouraged pursuit of legal remedies because of Williams’ weekly bribes.”
In Evans’ case, the suit claims that police committed a series of errors, including allowing Williams to potentially delete evidence from his cell phone when they interviewed him the night of the fall.
“By information and belief, had JCPD officers properly secured, seized, and searched the digital evidence in Williams’ apartment that night, they would have found evidence that Williams drugged Plaintiff and caused her to fall,” the suit claims.
It also claims that “[h]ad Defendants properly investigated Williams after any of the reports made against him prior to the incident involving Plaintiff, she would not have suffered the injuries alleged in this case.”
The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages for physical injuries, medical bills, emotional distress, pain and suffering, and punitive damages.
It names former JCPD Chief Karl Turner and former top investigator Kevin Peters, as well as detectives/officers Toma Sparks, Justin Jenkins, Jeff LeGault, and Brady Higgins, as defendants in addition to the city.
It alleges Johnson City and the police:
Violated the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act
Engaged in a civil conspiracy with Williams to allow his alleged ongoing pattern of drugging and raping women
Fraudulently concealed information from Evans
Violated the federal guarantee to equal protection through an unconstitutional pattern and practice as to women reporters of sexual assault
Violated that same guarantee by denying Evans her substantive right to due process
Engaged in the intentional infliction of emotional distress
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