Rape Victim Rights, Bought and Sold...

Back on February 12th I brought you a story about a woman, (Deanna Williams) who has been horribly abused by the system.  Because it has a number of moving parts, the story is not easy to follow.  I spoke to Deanna again to see if the story could be retold to make it easier to digest.  So here again, minus specific details which are being reserved for the courtroom, is her story. 

To begin with, she was raped and pursued civil justice after criminal justice was denied. 

The lawyer she hired to file the lawsuit bragged about getting a confession, however he also walked out of mediation crying and missed important court deadlines before abandoning her case. Her second legal team, headed by an attorney who calls herself "the most famous woman attorney practicing law in the nation today" and agreed in writing to pay all prior attorney fees and liens, settled the suit in a matter of weeks.

However, her relief was short lived. The lawyer who abandoned his responsibilities came back to sue her for an unearned fee then sold the rights to sue her to an investor for $50,000. Who ever heard of a lawyer selling a case to another for profit..?!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the judge in the case distributed stolen funds from her case behind closed doors in chambers without any minutes or recordings. The criminal and civil theft in this case has been life destroying. 

That same Lee County Circuit Court judge who approved the sale was arrested in a prostitution sting weeks after sanctioning her for the third attorney’s error of entering his appearance under the wrong case number. The judge has been removed; however, no review of the case has been ordered and it continues full speed ahead.

In a nutshell, she has been put through hell, her reputation has been smeared, and when she approached the sheriff’s office, it only made matters worse when the sheriff used her plight to pursue an unwanted sexual relationship.  At the end of the day, all she wants is to right these wrongs and clear her name from false allegations made by an attorney who bought the rights to sue her, a rape victim, who has Primary Progressive MS and PTSD as a result of her ordeal for profit.

She also wants to put this nightmare behind her, move on with her life, resume her career, and take care of her family.

But she can’t, because the investor who bought the rights to sue her is actively trying to gain control of all of her belongings as he tries to force her to sue the second law firm who settled the case so he can collect a fee from them as well, and she is threatened daily by him with aggressive collection efforts including arrest.

Not only is this story is far from over, it is really just beginning and you can expect to hear more about it on these pages in the coming weeks.