Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 6 March 2008 — Page 32

Page 32 • The Muncie Times • March 6, 2008

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continued from page 31 ed, life in prison. Also indicted was Frankie’s son, Bobby, for kidnapping, malicious assault, second-degree sexual assault, conspiracy and assault during the commission of a felony. He is the one suspect who Megan Williams reportedly had a “social relationship” with. In fact, Megan, who had moved in with Bobby, had previously accused him of abusing her last summer, which sent him to jail for several days. It was when he was released from jail in August that Megan was then kidnapped, held captive and tortured, authorities say. Another indicted suspect was Danny Combs, charged with kidnapping, first-degree sexual offense and conspiracy. A suspect not previously named but indicted this week was Linnie Burton, son of Karen Burton. The grand jury voted a true bill against him for one count of misdemeanor battery. Prosecutor Abraham said Frankie Brewster’s mobile home trailer was where all of the suspects gathered to get drunk and do drugs, resulting in violent acts. After Megan Williams moved in with Bobby Brewster by her own freewill, Abraham says, she was attacked and stabbed by Bobby and Karen Burton. That set in motion Megan not being allowed to leave the

property for fear that she would tell authorities. She was always being guarded and forced to stay either in a bedroom, or under the kitchen sink. Karen Burton is the one suspect who clearly had racist motives in her violent actions towards Williams, the prosecutor says his evidence shows. Three of the suspects - Combs, Bobby and his mother, Frankie - used “the threat of force, coercion or compulsion” to make Megan perform oral sex with each of them, sometimes at knifepoint. Authorities say Megan was also made to eat dog and rat feces, and lick up her own blood, and threatened with death if she attempted to escape. All of the suspects will be tried separately, authorities said. The grand jury met two days before the Feb. 7 broadcast of the nationally syndicated “Montel Williams” television show, which featured Megan Williams and her mother, Carmen, in a taped interview about her ordeal. The segment was actually taped last November 8 right after hundreds of supporters, led by activist/attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz, marched in rallied at the Charleston, W.Va. State capital, demanding that state and federal hate crime charges be leveled. According to Jeff Burwell, a cousin of Megan Williams who

accompanied her to the Montel Williams studio in New York along with her father, Matthew, Montel was asked by the family not to pose certain questions to Megan regarding details of what allegedly happened during her ordeal. Because she is still mentally, emotionally and physically recovering from the ordeal, the television host was further asked to be sensitive in his questioning. Burwell confirms that Montel Williams was respectful in how he treated the alleged victim on the program. Williams was also generous, awarding the young woman six months free tutoring so Megan could earn her GED; an undisclosed amount of money so that she could start college afterwards; and topped it all off with a laptop computer. “It was just powerful,” Jeff Burwell said, expressing the family’s appreciation for the gesture. Burwell said the studio audience had tears in their eyes as they applauded. Prosecutor Abraham has not been pleased by all of the publicity the case has received, saying that it will make it even more difficult to impanel a fair jury because white West Virginians are being portrayed as racists in the media. After a few weeks of relative calm, the Montel Williams program now

puts the Megan Williams case back in the headlines, to the chagrin of Abraham. “I don’t see how it can help the case, but I’m not concerned about [it] at this point,” he said. Civil rights activist the Rev. A1 Sharpton, who flew to West Virginia in December to show his support for Megan and her family, said despite prosecutor Abraham’s apprehension about case publicity and the involvement of high profile Black leaders like himself and attorney Shabazz, vigorous activism has actually kept pressure on West Virginia authorities to make the hate crimes charge happen, though he believes there should have been more. “There is nothing in history that shows me that when we’re quiet, we get anything,” Sharpton said Monday, “because then people can feel that nobody is watching, so we can do what we want to do.” He said, “I think, if anything, it makes [authorities] understand that they better do something because everybody’s involved in it." Attorney Shabazz agreed, saying that while others should have also been charged with hate crimes, he’s pleased that “some justice has been done.” TEARS AND TESTIMONY - Bell case opens with much emotion

It was relatively calm outside the State Supreme Court in Queens on Tuesday. But inside the packed courtroom on the second day of a trial where three police detectives stand accused in the shooting death of Sean Bell, there was a mounting tension from the defense lawyers. “You were convicted of selling crack cocaine, weren’t you?” blasted attorney Anthony Ricco, cross-examining witness Harold James. “No, I was convicted of facilitation,” James responded. Ricco, representing Gescard Isnora, who fired the first of 50 shots and who is charged with first and second-degree manslaughter, pranced across the courtroom peppering the witness with questions and comments. “Facilitation, that’s your word, but you were convicted of selling crack cocaine, right?” After a pause or two and several glances at Judge William Cooperman, presiding in the bench trial without a jury, James agreed with the attorney. Then, in tag-team fashion, Ricco was followed by the other defense attorneys, each of them determined to further suggest that Bell was not a saint and that James was at the Club Kalua that fateful night of Nov. 25, 2006 to make sure Bell and his entourage continued on page 33