News Article Excerpts
(Taken from Dredmund Higgins Database)

Plain Dealer 2/15/01 & 3/2/01

"Williams was released from prison Feb. 14, when Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove overturned the conviction. Cosgrove based her decision on the testimony of the alleged victim, who came forward Feb. 12 and said she was not sure that Williams was the man who raped her when she was 12."

"She said she kept her eyes closed during the attack and did not see the man's face. She said she picked Williams' photograph from mug shots because he was the only young, thin black man among them. In 1991, she told a jury that the rapist had left sucker marks on her neck."

"She was 12 at the time of the alleged attack. She told her parents she had been raped after they confronted her about sucker marks on her neck. She and a childhood girlfriend testified Monday that they had been experimenting with sexual activity and the girlfriend, who was also 12, made
the sucker marks."

"At the trial, doctors who examined the 12-year-old could not say that a rape had occurred. There was no semen or other biological material to test for DNA. Doctors could say only that the 12-year-old was not a virgin."