Judge denies one Sean Williams trial delay, OKs other

Accused sex abuser hints at dissatisfaction with current attorney

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — The first federal criminal trial for accused child rapist Sean Williams, for escape, is six weeks away after a judge denied a motion to continue Tuesday.

“It was just different”: Friends of missing Johnson City man ‘Shoestring’ express concern

The motion hearing, though, included a wrinkle that could lead to further delays — a letter Williams gave to U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer that apparently related to Williams’ dissatisfaction with his defense attorney. Joseph McAfee is the third appointed attorney to have served Williams since he first entered the federal court system in May 2023.

Greer kept Williams’ trial date on a charge of escape and another charge of attempted escape set at May 14. He also denied a motion to move the trial from Greeneville, saying didn’t think it would be terribly difficult to seat an impartial local jury despite a high level of media attention.

Greer did approve a separate motion to continue a separate trial on three counts of producing child pornography, moving the date of that trial from May 21 to August 27.

Williams, a former downtown Johnson City resident and business owner, is alleged to have sexually assaulted at least three children at this fifth-story apartment. He’s also alleged, though not yet charged — with drugging and raping or sexually assaulting more than 50 women at the apartment, with cameras set up around his home recording the alleged assaults.

Computer files show 52 Sean Williams alleged rapes

Williams’ alleged serial sex crimes are at the center of a 2022 federal civil lawsuit against Johnson City and members of its police department and a second suit filed in 2023. Both were filed before alleged video and photo evidence surfaced, and Williams was never charged with any sex crimes by Johnson City police.

Williams was indicted on the child pornography charges in September 2023. He’s since changed attorneys, and current defense attorney Joseph McAfee said a digital forensic expert has just begun reviewing the large amount of digital evidence collected from Williams’ computers when he was arrested on a separate charge April 30, 2023.

The relatively short hearing opened and closed with discussion around Williams’ letter to Greer. In between, Greer questioned defense attorney Joseph McAfee and federal prosecutor Meghan Gomez about their various arguments.

Escape trial to move forward — locally

Greer rejected Gomez’s suggestion that the government could potentially complete its current slate of business more efficiently by moving the escape trial until after the pornography production trial. She said it was possible the state could arrive at a plea deal with Williams after the production trial, eliminating the need for an escape trial.

McAfee, meanwhile, said he didn’t know of any remaining evidence on the digital files that could be relevant to the escape charges. Williams, who was first jailed April 30, is charged with escape from a transport van in Greeneville Oct. 18 (he was at large until Nov. 21) and with an attempted escape from the Washington County jail in July.

“We can’t just go off on a big fishing expedition here,” Greer said regarding the unreviewed evidence.

Gomez said the fact that the pornography production evidence surfaced sooner before the escapes and that a plea negotiation was possible in the escape case both were “reasonable considerations” for Greer to delay the escape trial. The judge wasn’t buying it, saying that would amount to “unnecessarily involving the court in plea strategy. I can’t do that.”

Greer also rejected McAfee’s suggestion that publicity in the wake of what he called Williams’ “alleged escape” in October would jeopardize a fair trial. “I don’t see anything to suggest we can’t pick a jury in Greene County,” he said.

As to McAfee’s claim that headlines mentioning an escape as opposed to an alleged escape — Williams was captured in Florida Nov. 21 — would mislead a jury, Greer seemed not just unmoved but perhaps a tad annoyed at the tactic.

“Are you going to try the defendant’s case on the premise that he did not escape?” Greer asked. McAfee didn’t have an answer to that seemingly rhetorical question.

More serious trial delayed — again

Greer has already delayed Williams’ production trial once. It was originally set to start in January. After Williams’s absence from federal custody between Oct. 18 and Nov. 21, his then-defense attorney Bryce McKenzie successfully appealed for removal as Williams’ counsel. McKenzie was Williams’ second appointed attorney.

Tuesday’s argument for delay centered around what the attorneys and Greer agreed was “voluminous” digital data that’s been in the possession of the FBI. The devices containing that data were seized by Western Carolina University police when they arrested Williams in a parked car in the wee hours of April 30, 2023 in Cullowhee, N.C.

Williams allegedly possessed 12 ounces of cocaine and 14 ounces of methamphetamine, prompting police to obtain a search warrant for computer equipment that was in his possession so they could check for drug transaction evidence. Instead, they allegedly found folder after folder containing video and images of what appeared to be women and children being sexually assaulted by Williams.

McAfee’s digital forensic expert began reviewing the material related to the pornography production charges last Thursday. But Gomez acknowledged that the remaining evidence, which remains with the FBI, could contain material with at least the slight potential to help Williams.

“Evidence the agents have found is more likely inculpatory (damaging to Williams) than exculpatory,” Gomez said but added that if there is exculpatory evidence, it would likely center around identity.

“This other evidence may become relevant to the identity of the defendant,” she said.

Greer said he’d normally deny the motion to continue, considering some of the delays relate to Williams now having changed attorneys twice.

“At least at this point, I won’t hold that against Mr. Williams,” Greer said.

Williams, he said, “has the right to not only a speedy trial but a fair trial, which means he must have an opportunity to review these digital files.”

Dear Judge Greer…

Tuesday’s proceedings started with Greer announcing that a deputy U.S. Marshal had just handed him a six-page letter from Williams, who sat surrounded by marshals and sporting a longish goatee.

“I’m not permitted to have ex part contact with you,” Greer told Williams, explaining they couldn’t communicate outside the courtroom. He told Williams he could keep and read the letter but that it would have to be entered in the court record, either sealed or unsealed.

Williams said he’d prefer the contents to be sealed, and said he’d like Greer “to keep it however is the appropriate way for you to read it.”

Greer said he would read the letter, and then Williams began talking before Greer quickly interrupted.

“You just told me you didn’t want the contents of the letter revealed … but now you’re going to stand up and tell me what’s in the letter?”

That quieted Williams, but after Greer re-set his pornography production trial date and prepared to recess, McAfee told Greer he hadn’t seen the letter himself.

“I need to discuss this letter with my client,” he said.

Greer said he’d only looked at the cover note and directed a clerk to walk the letter to McAfee, who looked at it for just a minute before saying he was familiar with the gist of it.

“It appears he’s concerned about the representation he’s receiving,” McAfee said in an apparent reference to himself.

Whether a complaint about his attorney and the potential further delay that could bring is enough to prompt the veteran judge to “hold that against Mr. Williams” remains to be seen. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, the court had filed a new sealed document.

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