Torture Victim Arraigned for Bad Checks

Twenty-year-old Megan Williams, the mentally disabled black woman who was imprisoned, sexually assaulted, and tortured by six white people for days (see here, here, here for background), has been charged with "11 misdemeanor counts of writing worthless checks, one misdemeanor count of obtaining under false pretenses and one felony count of failure to appear in circuit court in Summers County." The original charges date back to May 2006, so evidently, in the intervening year and a half, no one knew where Megan was or could be arsed looking for her, but once she conveniently presented herself to the public as a torture victim, it was time to swoop in and take care of business.

On Tuesday, Megan Williams' mother Carmen went from one courtroom, in which her daughter's accused attackers were being charged with upgraded criminal complaints, to another, in which her daughter was being arraigned. Megan limped into the courtroom with her leg bandaged, her broken arm in a cast, and "her hair still short and patchy from where it had been pulled out in places."

Megan Williams appeared briefly before [Magistrate Ward Harshbarger] before he made the decision to put her in a holding cell because of the number of reporters and family members in the courtroom.

“I wanna go home,” Megan said, clutching her mother.

Once in the holding cell, Megan Williams began to scream and cry for her mother, who was not with her.

Carmen Williams rushed to her side, “Here I am,” she said. “You better hush, Megan.”

After Harshbarger readied the paperwork, Megan Williams was brought back into the courtroom clutching a black and red teddy bear that at times she used to shield her face from the cameras.

She nodded to the magistrate as he asked her if she understood the charges and had her sign paperwork. She looked over at a camera to her left and stuck her tongue out. She stood on her toes shaking to look over the high desk of the magistrate and to sign papers.

The bad checks for which Megan is being prosecuted were written to places like Domino's Pizza and the Kiddie Junction Consignment Shop. She was released on $8,000 bond.

I have to go punch something now.

[H/T Elle.]