Judge: Johnson City must release sex assault audit materials in civil suits
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — Notes and other “work product” from an audit of the Johnson City Police Department’s (JCPD) handling of sexual assault cases can’t be withheld from attorneys who’ve filed two separate federal lawsuits against the city and several current and former police officers.
Federal Magistrate Judge Jill McCook’s multiple orders Tuesday covering both lawsuits require the city or Eric Daigle, who conducted the audits, to turn over requested materials within seven days.
The lawsuits filed in June 2022 and June 2023 in the Eastern District of Tennessee federal court both relate to former downtown Johnson City business owner Sean Williams. They’re centered around allegations that Williams drugged and raped multiple women at his fifth-floor apartment over a period of years and that the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD) either corruptly or incompetently failed to stop him.
The city has denied all allegations against it and the JCPD in both lawsuits.
The ruling represents a blow to the city as it had attempted to limit plaintiffs’ use of the so-called “Daigle Report” that it commissioned in August 2022. Johnson City and other defendants have denied all allegations in both civil lawsuits.
Attorneys for Kat Dahl, a former special assistant United States attorney who worked with the JCPD before being fired in 2021, and for multiple alleged Sean Williams victims who’ve filed a separate suit alleging sex trafficking abetted by JCPD, both have subpoenaed Eric Daigle. Their requests were for notes, interviews with police or city leaders and other background materials related to Daigle’s audit, which was released to the public in July 2023.
Dahl’s lawyers — her suit alleging retaliatory discharge is the older of the two and was filed in June 2022 — have also requested that their Dec. 28, 2023 deposition of Daigle be unsealed and made publicly available. In a short separate order, McCook gave lawyers for the city and other defendants until Monday to file a supplemental brief “for why the Daigle Deposition should remain sealed in its entirety.”
Daigle’s audit found multiple and significant weaknesses in how JCPD had handled sexual assault cases during the period studied, from the beginning of 2018 through 2022. The city’s lawyers have argued that plaintiffs aren’t entitled to the background documents and that the audit findings themselves should not be admissible.
They have called the report a “remedial measure” taken in the aftermath of Dahl’s lawsuit filing. They’ve also argued that Daigle is a “non-testifying, consulting expert,” which should exempt him from having to produce documents, be deposed or otherwise provide any material that could aid in the plaintiffs’ cases.
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McCook dismissed those and other attempts by defendants to shield Daigle’s work product.
Of the claim that Daigle was enlisted “based on allegations in Ms. Dahl’s lawsuit,” McCook found evidence otherwise.
“(T)he scope of Mr. Daigle’s investigation was not related to Ms. Dahl’s retaliation claim and there are no entries in Mr. Daigle’s invoices that reference the Dahl action,” McCook wrote in her order in the Does case. “Further, the city’s services agreement with Daigle does not reference Ms. Dahl’s litigation.”
In Dahl’s case, McCook wrote she found the city “hired Mr. Daigle based on citizens’ concerns over the JCPD’s alleged improper handling of sexual assault cases.” That conclusion is “bolstered by the fact that Defendants have never asserted that Mr. Daigle created his notes and Excel spreadsheet in anticipation of litigation with Ms. Dahl or anyone else.”
The findings have similarities to an explanation provided by Johnson City City Manager Cathy Ball in an Aug. 26, 2022 interview with News Channel 11. A reporter asked about the city’s claim in the Dahl lawsuit that each complaint against Williams was properly investigated and how the Williams case (then identified by the pseudonym “Robert Voe”) might or might not tie into the nascent Daigle audit.
“I can see how our community could be very confused,” Ball said. “I think in our response of the cases around Mr. Voe, those have been reviewed by our attorney and that’s the response that you see (in the lawsuit answer).
“We are not saying that we are aware of every situation. That’s what Daigle is doing is looking back for four-and-a-half years and investigating all of the incidents where people have reported assault, rape and looking into those. So that has not been completed. With regard to (Williams), the incidents that were reported specifically around (Williams) have been looked into.”
Williams was never charged by the JCPD with any crime other than felon in possession of ammunition related to the department’s investigations. His three child rape charges and the allegation of digital evidence he raped more than 50 women in his apartment all are the result of a search warrant by Western Carolina University police obtained after they arrested Williams on April 29, 2023.
McCook also rejected a claim the Daigle audit was a “subsequent remedial measure” that shouldn’t be disclosed for use by plaintiffs. Legal rules allow measures “that would have made an earlier injury or harm less likely to occur” to be inadmissible for plaintiffs to prove a variety of claims including negligence or culpable conduct.
But both lawsuits remain in the discovery stage. A separate ruling would be required on whether Daigle’s material, deposition or report could be admissible at trial.
McCook rejected the city’s argument that Daigle’s material isn’t “proportional to the needs of the case” for the plaintiffs in the Doe case.
“The issues in this case are important as the allegations relate to Defendants’ failure to investigate crimes and provide assistance to individuals who were allegedly sex trafficking,” she wrote.
“The discovery Plaintiffs seek is important given that Defendant Johnson City retained Mr. Daigle to investigate how the JCPD handled sexual assault investigations,” she continued. “As Plaintiffs explain, ‘the police reports provided to (Mr.) Daigle, containing reports from female victims of sexual violence during the same timeframe (as those in the Doe suit) are necessary and relevant to the Equal Protection Claim alleged on behalf of the Reporter Survivor Class.”
That class is one of three in the Does’ class action and consists of people who reported sexual assaults by people other than Williams.
Williams’ federal trial on three counts of child pornography production is currently scheduled to begin May 21 in Greeneville. He also faces a raft of other federal and state charges.
The trial in Dahl’s civil suit is scheduled to start May 14 in Knoxville. The alleged victims’ trial is scheduled for April 14, 2025 in Chattanooga.
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