The lawsuit includes a broader settlement class of up to 400 women, including minors, who lodged any report of sexual abuse or trafficking to Johnson City Police from 2018 through December 2022, due to accusations of gender discrimination, Jonathan Lakey, an attorney representing the city, told commissioners.
If approved by a federal judge, the settlement would resolve the lawsuit filed by women under “Jane Doe” pseudonyms against the city and individual police officers over sexual assault allegations against Sean Williams from 2018 to 2021.
The lawsuit is one of three that accuse the Johnson City Police Department of refusing to properly investigate evidence that Williams was drugging and raping women in their east Tennessee community for years.
Williams was also in possession of photos and videos showing him sexually assaulting at least 52 women at his Johnson City apartment while they were in an “obvious state of unconsciousness,” police wrote.
At least half a dozen names on the folders of videos of women were consistent with first names on a list labeled “Raped” that Johnson City officers had previously found in his apartment, a police affidavit said.
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