Tennessee suspect in dozens of rapes gets 95 years for child sex abuse
images and escape convictions
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[February 25, 2025]
By JONATHAN MATTISE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man accused in lawsuits of drugging
and sexually assaulting dozens of women received a 95-year prison
sentence Monday for other types of offenses: the production of child sex
abuse images and an escape from an inmate transport van.
Judge J. Ronnie Greer in Greeneville called Sean Williams an unrepentant
“organized, methodical sexual predator of women and children,” according
to the Johnson City Press. Prosecutors said Williams, who was already in
prison, had razor blades in his shoes on his way to court.
Williams, 53, congratulated a prosecutor for a ”dramatic performance"
during Monday's hearing in federal court and implied the images were
faked or doctored. Williams laughed, shook his head and retorted when
the judge said the only thing worse he could imagine would be being a
serial killer.
Earlier this month, Johnson City officials voted to pay $28 million to
settle a lawsuit filed by women under “Jane Doe” pseudonyms against the
city and individual police officers that claimed police deliberately
botched investigations over sexual assault allegations against Williams
from 2018 to 2021.
Williams has not yet been criminally charged as a result of the women’s
allegations in the lawsuits.

The city and the officers have long denied corruption allegations,
including a claim in the women's lawsuit that Williams paid police to
obstruct investigations into sexual assault allegations against him. The
settlement broadly includes 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. The settlement still requires court approval.
A campus police officer at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee,
North Carolina, found Williams asleep in his car in 2023 while he was
fleeing a federal felon-possessing-ammunition charge in April 2021.
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This Sept. 19, 2020 photo shows a downtown Johnson City, Tenn.
building where Sean Williams reportedly lived. (WJHL via AP, File)

His vehicle contained cocaine, methamphetamine, about $100,000 and
digital storage devices with more than 5,000 images of child sexual
abuse. 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 folders containing 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.
After being charged in connection with the child sexual abuse images,
Williams in October 2023 escaped from a van taking him from a Kentucky
detention center to a hearing in Tennessee. Authorities caught him in
Florida more than a month later.
He was convicted in July of the van escape and in November of the child
sex abuse images of a 9-month-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and a
7-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Williams also raped the children’s
mothers while they were unconscious and that there were images and
videos of them as well. Williams took the sexually explicit photos of
one child in 2008 and the other two on separate occasions in 2020, all
in his apartment, prosecutors said.
In Tennessee state court, Williams faces additional charges involving
minors. In a North Carolina federal court, he’s charged with possessing
child sexual abuse images and illegal drugs.
Two other federal lawsuits against Johnson City and individual police
officers are still pending over the investigation of sexual assault
reports against Williams.
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