Attorney breaks down $28M Jane Doe settlement related to JCPD

Yahoo

15-02-2025

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — The City of Johnson City's pending $28 million payment to settle a civil lawsuit over the Johnson City Police Department's (JCPD) handling of sexual assault cases might seem at odds with the dismissal of all claims of corruption, bribery and sex trafficking against the city.
A local civil rights attorney and former prosecutor, though, says those dismissals still leave an allegation on the table. That allegation — that JCPD engaged in a years-long 'unconstitutional pattern and practice as to women reporters of sexual assault' — actually opens the door for payment to many more people who reported sexual assault than just Sean Williams's victims.
Any payments will come through a class action settlement that will be formalized now that the sides have agreed to terms.
'Based on my experience in civil cases, a $28 million settlement does not just get given to someone if there's not a fear or at least a concern that something will happen when it comes to the ultimate venue, as I said, a courtroom and what a jury is going to believe,' Corey Shipley told News Channel 11 Friday.
PREVIOUS: Sides in JCPD corruption lawsuit tussle over evidence
Shipley said the willingness to settle likely traces back to a third-party expert's audit of five years worth of Johnson City sexual assault cases — commissioned by the city itself after a separate but related lawsuit was filed in 2022, a year before the one being settled.
'It's very, very negative for the city and very, very negative for the police department,' Shipley said of the so-called 'Daigle Report,' named for its lead author Eric Daigle.
'When you look at that report and what is remaining in the case, it's one of those things that at least makes you think that there is still … some liability there that they're not denying.'
The original 'Jane Does v Johnson City et al' suit, filed in June 2023, focused on victims of alleged serial rapist Sean Williams. It claimed Johnson City police had failed to properly investigate sexual assault allegations against downtown resident Williams between 2019 and 2022. That's a period that even federal prosecutors now claim Williams spent drugging and sexually assaulting more than 60 women — and filming those assaults.
67 possible Sean Williams sexual assault victims now
The city and all defendants had consistently denied all claims, and attorneys representing the individual defendants released a statement calling all the claims 'absolutely false.'
Now, the plaintiffs' attorneys are indeed dropping all those claims with prejudice, meaning they can't be brought back up against the city or any of the current and former officers who were named as individual defendants. But the City is still paying $28 million, with at least a significant portion of it coming directly from city coffers as its municipal liability insurance caps out at a lower amount.
That specific amount is one question News Channel 11 put to the city Friday morning. The city declined to answer it but said the money will come out of the city's general fund balance, that it won't impact services to citizens in any way, and that the city is not considering layoffs as a result of paying its share of the settlement.
'This is one of the largest settlements that I can remember, because especially when you're dealing with a city or municipality … there are certain limits and certain (insurance) policy limits,' Shipley said.
Daigle's report looked at more than 300 sexual assault reports to JCPD from 2018 through 2022. It found a number of cases that were well-investigated but determined that, overall, JCPD had a number of 'certain investigative practices' that 'could negatively affect the quality and efficiency of their response to sexual assault cases.'
PREVIOUS — Report: JCPD sexual assault investigations didn't meet legal requirements, industry standards
'Mind you, this is an outside group that was hired by the city to come in and look to see if there was a pattern of omissions and looking at certain things of the investigations were not done properly,' Shipley said.
Daigle noted a common theme running through many of these weaknesses: 'JCPD's response to sexual assault was challenged based on gender-based stereotypes and bias.'
WJHL's FULL COVERAGE OF THE SEAN WILLIAMS CASE
That's now the apparent basis for an amended complaint by the plaintiffs that eliminates all the corruption, bribery and other claims against JCPD related to Sean Williams. It instead closely follows Daigle in listing a series of 'unconstitutional customs, practices, or policies' it claims JCPD followed.
The claim says the JCPD violated the reporters' constitutional right to equal protection due to the previously mentioned 'pattern and practice.'
While JCPD has worked on addressing many of Daigle's eight major findings and reports a markedly improved approach, Shipley said the weaknesses Daigle documented appear to provide the crux of any potential liability if the case were to go to trial.
'If that comes in front of a jury where there is a pattern of conduct that has taken place that is not anywhere near as egregious as the (Williams) allegations, but it could be argued that it's as egregious because we're not protecting the people that are bringing these allegations … you have to be concerned about that,' Shipley said.
He said that's because unlike in criminal cases, where prosecutors must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, civil cases require only a 'preponderance of the evidence' to succeed.
'If the defense in the case cannot prove that there are more questions than answers, you have to be concerned as an attorney and one that's advising a group of people that, 'look, you do have some exposure here,'' Shipley said.
The sides had been negotiating a potential settlement for at least a couple of months.
'During these negotiations, there's a lot of legal maneuvering behind the scenes,' Shipley said.
'I know that the complaint was amended here, dropping certain claims against certain individuals, but I think it's really telling what was still left… Just because certain individuals were removed because of the amended complaint, it does not mean that there's not still something there that could be proven.'
A defense attorney for the City warned commissioners Thursday of just that, saying taking the case to trial left open the potential for a judgment even larger than the settlement amount. Commissioner Joe Wise appeared to accept that premise.
'(T)he class action has this potential of even if everything goes our way, except for one thing, somewhere along the line … that would make a settlement seem like peanuts someday in the future. This sort of settlement is one with significant consequences, but it is not catastrophic.'
Wise clarified that 'not catastrophic' means the settlement will not threaten or disrupt 'core city services.'
Shipley said juries are unpredictable, and because they're allowed to set both compensatory damages (to compensate for proven loss) and punitive damages (to punish the defendant for its conduct), award amounts can be unpredictable as well.
'As a judge or whomever that is that's instructing the jury that they should follow the law … (it) is your duty as a juror to do, but the fact is, with human nature, it's hard to kind of separate what you should do and what you want to do,' Shipley said.
'When you have all these really damaging allegations involving these victims, it's hard to really separate that because you have all this exposure that you could have going to a jury and a jury being very emotionally charged for what this organization or what the city did not do. And yes, the exposure could have been a lot larger.'
The Does case was filed a year after former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kat Dahl filed her own lawsuit against the city. She claims that she was terminated from a role with the city after raising concerns about Williams and urging police leadership to investigate him more thoroughly.
Dahl's suit remains outstanding, and in fact, it's included legal tussles over the admissibility of the Daigle Report.
Dahl's attorneys provided a rare comment to News Channel 11 Friday, criticizing a Thursday news release from attorneys for the individual officers who were named as defendants in the Does suit.
In addition to thanking the City for standing behind their clients, those attorneys went a step further, bringing up Sean Williams and saying it was JCPD that deserves credit for his eventual arrest and the serious charges that followed.
'It was JCPD's investigation and actions that actually led to the apprehension and now conviction of Sean Williams,' the release states. 'It was JCPD's indictment of Williams from which Williams fled, living on the run, and for which he was eventually arrested when found. That arrest revealed additional evidence that has now led to Williams's conviction.
'The officers, investigators, and leaders of the JCPD were determined to bring Sean Williams to justice, and their efforts did just that. Second-guessing investigative steps years later with the benefit of later-uncovered evidence and hindsight does nothing to benefit the citizens of Johnson City.'
The response from attorneys Hugh Eastwood and Alexis Tahinci reads as follows:
Women and children victimized by Sean Williams filed a class action against Johnson City, stating that Kat Dahl's whistleblowing was the sole reason they knew of Johnson City's intentional misconduct as to Williams. Even as they have now voted to pay $28 million to settle these victims' lawsuit, Johnson City officials continue their lamentable pattern of casting aspersions on the victims' serious allegations, with one stating the settlement 'made him feel sick' and another calling it a 'blemish.'
Johnson City taxpayers can make their own conclusions as to why their government would pay $28 million to settle claims if they are 'absolutely false.' Women and children in the community can read of the Daigle Report and this $28 million payout, and rightly wonder that if Kat Dahl's whistleblowing was the sole cause of notice to Williams's victims of Johnson City's failures, then it might also be the sole cause of Johnson City firing Dahl.
Kat Dahl's civil suit has pending motions and has not yet been set for trial. Williams, who has been convicted of three counts of enticing minors for purposes of producing child pornography, faces up to 95 years in federal prison when he's sentenced Feb. 24. Local prosecutors have also said he's likely to face multiple counts of rape or sexual assault against adult women.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.