Published: October 24, 2009 12:09 am      

Convicted woman says torture case ‘did happen’

Says victim wasn’t telling the truth when she denied this week that the attack occurred

WEST COLUMBIA — A woman imprisoned for her role in the 2007 kidnapping and torture of a black woman by seven white men and women in West Virginia said Friday the victim wasn’t telling the truth when she denied this week that the attack occurred.

Frankie Brewster told WCHS-TV in Charleston that multiple crimes were committed against Megan Williams during the attack in rural Logan County, about 50 miles south of Charleston.

An attorney representing Williams said Wednesday that she is now recanting statements incriminating Brewster, her son Bobby and five others. All seven pleaded guilty and six are serving lengthy prison terms.

Williams originally 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.

Brewster is rejecting Williams’ new version of events.

“It did happen,” Brewster said during the interview at the Lakin Correctional Center, where she is serving 10 to 25 years. “All of us participated.”

Brewster denied that race or Williams’ relationship with her son started the series of crimes. Rather, she blamed a co-defendant who accused Williams of stealing money and food stamps.

While Brewster would not detail her own actions, she acknowledged having improper contact with Williams. Brewster pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault in the case.

Brewster also said that race wasn’t a factor and she said some of the crimes did not occur at her trailer home.

“I just want the truth out and for people take responsibility for what they did,” Brewster said.

Brian Abraham, the Logan County prosecutor in 2007, also has dismissed Williams’ new story, saying the convictions were based on the defendants’ own statements and physical evidence rather than what Williams said.

The Associated Press has asked, through prison officials and lawyers, to speak with all six prisoners. So far, only Bobby Brewster has said, through prison officials, that he will not give interviews.