Tuesday, September 25, 2007

It's Funny What the Media Considers News Worthy


This was apparently not newsworthy enough to make the major stations...

While the media is senationalizing the OJ hotel theft case, this has gone virtually unreported.

This happened in West Virginia very recently and as of 9/18/2007, Megan Williams was still being treated for this in the hospital.

She was Tortured and Raped for a whole week by six individuals, three males and three Females Between the ages of 20 and 49.

CNN normally does not reveal sexual assault victims' names. But Williams, who is hospitalized, and her mother, Carmen Williams, wanted her identity revealed.

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Police said Bobby Brewster raped Williams, forced her to lick blood and drink from a toilet, and told his mother to kill Williams if she tried to escape. Authorities previously said Williams was also forced to eat rat and dog feces.

According to criminal complaints filed in the county, Williams was assaulted, stabbed in the left leg, choked with cords and beaten for at least a week. When she was found, big parts of her hair had also been torn off of her scalp. Williams says that Alisha Burton 22 cut her ankle with a knife while saying, "That's what we do to Niggers around here," police records show.

"I don't understand a human being doing another human being the way they did my daughter," Carmen Williams told The Associated Press on Tuesday from her daughter's hospital room. "I didn't know there were people like that out here."

Deputies received a tip and Saturday visited a home owned by Frankie Brewster in Big Creek , West Virginia . As the deputies spoke with a woman on the front porch, "a female inside the residence limped toward the door with her arms held out, saying 'Help me,' " according to a news release from the sheriff's department. "It's something you'd expect to see in a horror movie, not in Logan County ," Abraham said. "She was subjected to unendurable torture down there."

The six are charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and battery. If convicted of kidnapping, a suspect could face a sentence of up to life in prison. The penalty for first-degree sexual assault is 15 to 35 years. Abraham said he is seeking the maximum sentence on the kidnapping charges. In addition to the Brewsters, the suspects are Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, West Virginia; and George A. Messer, 27, Karen Burton, 46, and her daughter, Alisha Burton, 23, all of Chapmanville, West Virginia. "They all have previous records and have been arrested numerous times," Sheriff W.E. Hunter said Tuesday. "They are familiar to law enforcement."

Frankie Brewster was charged with first-degree murder in 1994, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the death of an 84-year-old woman. She was released in 2000 after serving five years in prison, according to court records cited by the AP. All of the six individuals that are involved in this case are accused of 108 different cases of crimes all combined.

All six were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, and all requested court-appointed attorneys, the AP reported. Investigators are still looking for two other people suspected of driving Williams to the home, according to the AP.

Carmen Williams had not reported her daughter missing, saying Megan Williams often disappeared for weeks at a time.

Carmen Williams said she is "horrified" by her daughter's injuries. "She wakes up crying, and the first thing she hollers is 'Mommy,' " she said.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Later reports say the young woman had a relationship with one of the men. They are saying that creates difficulty with the "hate crime" designation.

Anonymous said...

I actually thought the national media has been doing a decent job of covering this. Maybe because I've been looking for this.

Rell said...

And don't blame the media -- blame the american people for being stupid and continuing to gives stories like OJ ratings.

tweezie said...

you know whats crazy...I haven't watched any television (so no CNN) in about a month---unless its on my DVR--- and I've been more in the know about real issues and real news than when I watched news everyday...

I blame we the people just as much as I blame media producers...

Anonymous said...

Rell, spoken like a true journalism major. : )

The mainstream media covers more than people think (I'm not attacking you, James), but the mainstream media is as much of a business as it is a public service - perhaps more so. And the media has to pay attention to what the people want, because after all, American capitalism is at the center of it all. And the people want Vick, OJ, coonery and niggatry. (After completing the previous sentence I realized that all of my examples are pretty much the same. My bad.)

But like Twilla, I depend on online news - especially alternative media like blogs - for stuff like this.

Ticia said...

This case makes me so sad...
It broke my heart---

I hope this animals are punished to the fullest extent of the law...