Tigera Consciente: These are the demented minds that racism breeds: Two Cases- Black Woman Tortured in West Virginia and The Jena 6

Deputies: Woman Was Tortured, 6 Charged
6 in W.Va. Charged in Weeklong Attack on Woman; FBI Investigating Possible
Hate Crime

By TOM BREEN
The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va.
Authorities said Tuesday they are considering hate crime charges in the case
of a woman who was tortured while being held captive for at least a week,
and they are investigating the possibility that she was lured by a man she
met on the Internet. The victim was repeatedly called a racial slur while
her captors sexually abused, beat and stabbed her, her mother said.
Six people, all white, including a mother and son and a mother and daughter,
were arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of the 20-year-old
black woman.
"I don't understand a human being doing another human being the way they did
my daughter," Carmen Williams said Tuesday from her daughter's room at
Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital. "I didn't know there were
people like that out here."
Megan Williams, with a cast on her arm, spoke barely above a whisper.
"I'm better," she said.
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual
assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name.
A prosecutor said police are investigating the possibility that the victim
was lured to the house where she was attacked by a man she met on the
internet, but Carmen Williams insisted that wasn't the case. "This wasn't
from the Internet," she said.
Deputies also interviewed the victim Tuesday morning. State, local and
federal officials planned to meet later in the day to decide whether to file
hate crime charges, Logan County sheriff's Sgt. Sonya Porter said. An FBI
spokesman in Pittsburgh, Bill Crowley, confirmed that the agency is looking
into possible civil rights violations.
The woman's abductors called her the N-word "every time they stabbed her,"
Carmen Williams told The Charleston Gazette earlier.
Authorities were still looking for two people they believe drove the woman
to the house where she was abused, said Logan County Chief Deputy V.K.
Dingess.
The case is "something that would have come out of a horror movie," Logan
County Sheriff W.E. Hunter said.
Deputies found Williams on Saturday when they went to the house in Big
Creek, about 35 miles southwest of Charleston, to investigate an anonymous
tip from someone who had witnessed the abuse, Porter said Tuesday.
One of the suspects, Frankie Brewster, was sitting on the front porch and
told deputies she was alone, but moments later the woman limped toward the
door, her arms outstretched, saying "Help me," the sheriff's department said
in a news release.
Carmen Williams said doctors told her daughter she may be well enough to
leave the hospital within a few days, although a nurse said the young
woman's condition was listed as "under evaluation."
"I just want my daughter to be well and recover," Carmen Williams said. "I
know the Lord can do anything."
Besides being sexually assaulted, the woman was stabbed four times in the
left leg and beaten, Porter said. Her eyes were black and blue. The wounds
were inflicted at least a week ago, deputies said.
The woman was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from a toilet,
according to the criminal complaint filed in magistrate court. She also had
been choked with a cord, it alleges.
One of those arrested, Karen Burton, is accused of cutting the woman's ankle
with a knife. She used the N-word in telling the woman she was victimized
because she is black, according to the criminal complaint.
The six suspects were arrested Saturday and Sunday. Deputies were still
trying to determine whether the woman knew her assailants, Porter said.
Brewster, the 49-year-old who owns the home where the alleged attacks
occurred, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and
giving false information during a felony investigation.
Her son, Bobby R. Brewster, 24, also of Big Creek, is charged with
kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and assault during the
commission of a felony.
Burton, 46, of Chapmanville, is charged with malicious wounding, battery and
assault during the commission of a felony.
Her daughter Alisha Burton, 23, of Chapmanville, and George A. Messer, 27,
of Chapmanville, are charged with assault during the commission of a felony
and battery.
Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, is charged with sexual assault and malicious
wounding.
All six remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of $100,000 bail each, and all
have asked for court-appointed attorneys.

(This version CORRECTS correct woman's age to 20.)

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