A woman who nearly died after plunging five stories from the apartment of an alleged serial rape suspect in Johnson City has filed a federal lawsuit claiming police failed to properly investigate her case.
Mikayla Evans says in her lawsuit filed last week in the Eastern District of Tennessee that Johnson City businessman Sean Williams drugged her and pushed her out the window of his fifth-floor apartment, shattering her legs and pelvis.
Police took bribes from Williams at the time and turned a blind eye as he drugged and raped dozens of women in the East Tennessee town, the lawsuit alleges.
Evans says police botched the investigation in her incident and gave Williams time to destroy evidence before closing the case.
The lawsuit is the latest against the city in a case that has raised allegations of police misconduct and a federal investigation into government corruption.
The city also faces a whistleblower lawsuit from a former federal prosecutor and a major class action lawsuit alleging that police ignored the serial rape suspect’s actions for years, even as multiple victims came forward.
Williams, 52, was arrested last year and faces state and federal charges related to child pornography, child sexual abuse and drug trafficking.
When he was arrested, officers searched his car and found USB drives containing more than 5,000 images of child pornography and images and videos of 52 women in apparent states of unconsciousness being sexually assaulted by Williams, according to a police statement.
Surviving a 20 meter fall
Evans’ case was the catalyst for the Williams investigation.
Evans, a single mother from Kingsport, was walking with a friend in downtown Johnson City in September 2020 when they came across Williams, who was partying with friends in his garage, according to the complaint.
Williams, an alleged cocaine trafficker and well-known partygoer in the city, invited Evans and her boyfriend to his apartment.
She says in the lawsuit that she was not drunk, but within 20 minutes she began to feel the effects of a drug and her speech began to slur.
She says Williams tried to sexually assault her and then pushed her out of his window during the altercation, where she fell 20 feet to the ground.
She suffered multiple shattered bones and was not expected to live. She struggled to learn to walk again and continues to fight the pain.
Her Knoxville attorney, Ashleigh Beer-Vineyard, could not be reached for comment.
Johnson City police investigated the case as a possible attempted murder. But in her lawsuit, Evans alleges that officers failed to test her for date rape drugs and that her rape kit was improperly administered.
When they brought Williams in for questioning, she said, police initially allowed him to keep his cell phone, giving him time to make calls and delete data.
Officers seized electronic equipment and surveillance footage from Williams’ apartment, but the devices remained in police custody for more than two years without being searched for evidence, the complaint said.
Officers also took a safe containing gun ammunition and found a handwritten list on Williams’ bedside table that included the word “Rape” followed by the first names of nearly a dozen women, court records show.
Attorneys representing Johnson City and several police officers in court documents have repeatedly denied the allegations in the lawsuits.
In a statement Tuesday, the city said it has reviewed Evans’ complaint, although it has not yet been officially filed.
“These claims relate to incidents that occurred nearly four years ago, and the allegations are substantially the same as those we continue to deny in other lawsuits,” the statement said. “We have yet to see any evidence to support allegations of government corruption. Johnson City Police Department and continue to welcome any investigation that could refute such claims.”
Former federal prosecutor Kateri Dahl, who had a contract in Johnson City to prosecute gun and drug crimes, said she repeatedly urged police to investigate Williams and was later fired after she complained.
Dahl said in her whistleblower lawsuit against the city that in May 2021, officers finally went to serve a federal arrest warrant on an illegal ammunition charge related to the ammunition recovered from his safe. They went to Williams’ home but left when no one answered the door.
He then fled and remained a fugitive for nearly two years until a campus police officer at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina found him sleeping in his car.
Investigation into corruption in the federal government
Evans’ case comes as explosive allegations continue to unfold in a class-action lawsuit from multiple victims, claiming police failed to investigate their sexual assault cases and deter them from filing charges to serve.
Lawsuits allege that Williams’ business partner funneled $2,000 in weekly extortion payments for Johnson City police officers through a network of limited liability companies.
The U.S. Justice Department opened a public corruption investigation into allegations of police and government misconduct related to the Williams case in August-September 2023 and interviewed some victims in March, court records show.
The department would not comment on the case.
Williams has not yet been charged in the alleged sexual assault of dozens of women.
In October, Williams escaped custody by reportedly smashing the rear window of a transport van as guards were transporting him to a federal courthouse in Greeneville.
A month later he was captured in Florida. His trial on escape charges is scheduled for August.
This article originally appeared in Nashville Tennessean: Johnson City serial rape suspect: Tennessee woman files federal charges
