Published: October 23, 2009 05:04 am      

Caretaker: Woman has changed her version of torture story before

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A black woman who recanted 2007 allegations of being kidnapped and tortured by a group of white people in West Virginia has mental issues and has changed her version of what happened more than once, her caretaker said Thursday.

Valencia Daniels of Columbus said that Megan Williams “goes back and forth, back and forth” about the allegations of being beaten, raped and tortured. Williams sometimes says the story is true and other times says some of it didn’t happen, Daniels said.

“I really don’t know what to believe,” Daniels, 47, told The Associated Press. Seven people pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Six are serving lengthy prison terms.

Daniels’ comments came one day after an attorney for Williams held a news conference to say Williams was recanting the whole story.

The attorney, Byron L. Potts, said Wednesday that Williams fabricated the story to get revenge on an ex-boyfriend and all her wounds except facial bruises were self-inflicted. He said Williams was coming forward because she no longer wanted to live a lie.

Williams, 22, and her 21-year-old sister, Shayla, have lived with Daniels in Columbus for more than a year. Daniels, who described herself as a community activist, said Megan Williams is receiving psychological counseling and needs constant supervision.

Daniels said she tried to talk Williams out of recanting because of inconsistencies in her story, but Williams insisted.

Potts said Thursday that Daniels and Williams came to his office earlier in the week. The only time he saw Williams exhibit strange behavior is when she backed out of appearing at the news conference about an hour before it was scheduled to begin, he said.

He said he doesn’t want to move forward with the case until medical professionals determine Williams’ mental state.

Earlier Thursday, Malik Shabazz, founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Black Lawyers for Justice, said he believed that Williams was being manipulated and that she really was tortured.

“I think it’s a joke and I stand with the prosecutor and evidence that was presented in this case,” he said.

Daniels denied that she is manipulating Williams and rejected any assertion that she is seeking publicity. Daniels had approached media outlets in recent months, handing out fliers that stated the truth needed to come out.

Williams had said her captors, including boyfriend Bobby Brewster, beat her, raped her, forced her to drink urine and eat feces, poured hot wax on her and taunted her with racial slurs in a trailer in Logan County, about 50 miles from Charleston. Williams was rescued after a passer-by heard cries from the shed where she was kept and an anonymous caller tipped off sheriff’s deputies.

Brian Abraham, the Logan County prosecutor at the time of the 2007 incident, has dismissed Williams’ new story as “absurd,” and said the convictions were based on the defendants’ own statements and physical evidence rather than what Williams said.

Shabazz was occasionally at odds with Abraham over the handling of the case. Frequently speaking on behalf of Williams and her family, Shabazz repeatedly urged authorities to pursue hate-crime charges against the accused. Ultimately, one of them, Karen Burton, was convicted on a state hate crimes charge.

Shabazz also organized a march and rallies in Charleston on Williams’ behalf, and said those events and other fundraising earned more than $20,000 for her.

“I love Megan Williams, and I’m embarrassed,” he said. “This case could have a lot of negative consequences for our people and the legal system in West Virginia, and our people who organized and marched through the streets. I must come forward and tell them they were not duped.”

There is no practical legal effect of Wednesday’s announcement, according to Philip Morrison, executive director of the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute.

“She hasn’t recanted,” Morrison said. “A lawyer can’t speak for an individual. The individual has to speak for herself. That’s step one.”

If Williams does give a formal statement, then it’s up to the six convicts to file writs of habeas corpus to have their cases reopened, citing newly discovered evidence, Morrison said.

Lawyers for the six have either not responded to requests for comment or have declined to talk. The Associated Press has asked, via prison officials, to speak with the six. So far, Bobby Brewster has declined comment and the others have not responded.

Whatever the outcome of the legal process, the ripple effects of a high-profile and racially tinged case could result in future skepticism toward victims of shocking crimes.

“It can cause law enforcement and others to be more skeptical and resort to stereotypes about victims, and that can make it more difficult for victims to come forward,” said Jeff Dion, director of the National Crime Victim Bar Association. Shabazz had the same concerns.