Staff Contributor
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WCYB) — A federal judge said Tuesday he “anticipates approving” a $4.2 million class action settlement between Johnson City and hundreds of women who reported sexual assault to police between 2018 and 2022. It’s part of $28 million total the city is paying in the lawsuit, including separate settlements with alleged victims of Sean Williams. Williams was convicted in late 2024 of producing child porn and sentenced to 95 years in prison.
Judge Travis McDonough took issue with some language in the settlement he considered too vague. McDonough asked attorneys on both sides to “refine” a section he believed could waive the class members’ right to sue Johnson City over Sean Williams and not just the gender discrimination claims the class action was about.
The lawsuit included specific payouts to the alleged Williams victims who brought the case, including an alleged minor victim, while the court hearing Tuesday focused on a $4.2 million class action settlement fund for about 375 women the lawsuit claims Johnson City police discriminated against in its investigation or failure to investigate their sexual assault cases. Court documents state the fund is expected to amount to more than $7,000 per class member.
According to court documents, the settlement also included changes to police department protocol and requires Johnson City to provide audit reports on at least 15 sex crime investigations each quarter over the next two years.
The hearing comes at the conclusion of a lawsuit spanning about two-and-a-half years and nearly 550 court filings. At one point, the suit claimed Johnson City police took bribes from Sean Williams to avoid investigating him, which Johnson City and police officers in the case denied. Those claims were dismissed once the settlement was negotiated, and district attorney general Steve Finney said FBI and TBI investigations found no evidence to support those claims.
Johnson City still faces two other lawsuits related to Williams. Former federal prosecutor Kateri Dahl is suing, alleging she was fired for calling attention to Williams, and, Mikayla Evans, an alleged Williams victim who claims police took bribes from Williams.
Williams himself is facing charges in North Carolina federal court on…
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