Transcript: Prosecutor pushed for Sean Williams search warrant 15 days before alleged child rape

Editor’s Note: The quotes in this article are taken from a transcript of a recorded meeting. The actual recording has been sealed in the federal civil lawsuit Dahl v Turner et al.

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — When she met with top police brass on Dec. 8, 2020, then-federal prosecutor Kat Dahl had been familiar with downtown Johnson City businessman Sean Williams for several weeks — and she already suspected he might be a really bad guy.

The special assistant U.S. attorney who worked serious drug and weapons cases with the Johnson City Police Department (JCPD) was helping investigate a potential “felon in possession of ammunition” case against Williams. But a search of Williams’ apartment and another of his safe had yielded some evidence that gave Dahl grave concerns and left her thinking an ammo sentence might pale in comparison to other possibilities.

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“The whole baby doll in the safe makes me think that, you know, this very well could be an individual who has child porn on his computer or something of that nature,” Dahl told then-JCPD Chief Karl Turner in a meeting that she recorded.

The physically altered doll, a written “raped” list of more than 20 names and several women’s reports that Williams had sexually assaulted them had driven Dahl to suggest JCPD investigators seek a search warrant for Williams’ numerous computers.

“I was kind of trying, you know, to push for them to get a search warrant on the computer,” Dahl told Turner, according to a transcript of the recording.

“(I)f he does have … something … of the nature of like, child porn or whatever, you know, that would be a kind of ace in the hole type situation,” she said.

No such warrant ever came, but two-and-a-half years later, computer files seized from Williams in North Carolina allegedly confirmed Dahl’s suspicions. The files opened by Western Carolina University police seeking drug transaction ledgers contained files with pictures and video showing Williams allegedly raping more than 50 different women in his Johnson City apartment.

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That wasn’t all. As a September 2023 charge in Washington County Criminal Court alleges, Sean Williams raped a child younger than 3 on Dec. 23, 2020 — just 15 days after Dahl reportedly told Turner about her concerns.

Williams currently faces multiple federal child pornography production charges, federal drug charges, an escape charge and state charges alleging three separate child rapes. None of those charges are based in any investigation and affidavits brought forward by JCPD.

Dahl privately recorded that Dec. 8 meeting with Turner. On Jan. 16, its 61-page transcript was released as part of Turner’s motion for summary judgment in a June 2022 federal lawsuit Dahl filed against the City of Johnson City and against Turner.

Dahl claims Turner fired her from her role as a federal special prosecutor assigned to work with JCPD in retaliation after she pressed JCPD higher-ups to broaden what was then a federal ammunition case against Williams. The City has denied the allegations against it, as has Turner.

Dahl was brought into that ammo case in November 2020, weeks after the search that launched it after a Kingsport woman, Mikayla Evans, fell from Williams’ fifth-floor downtown apartment Sept. 19, 2020. Police discovered ammunition in a safe Williams owned and brought Dahl in to possibly take that case federal.

Within a few weeks, Dahl had developed grave concerns about Williams based on other evidence collected in the September searches of Williams’ apartment and safe.

‘I think he’s an ongoing danger to the community’

Dahl’s role was outlined in a contract between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the JCPD. Like some other departments, the JCPD used federal grant funds to retain the services of an assistant U.S. attorney on drug, trafficking and weapons cases.

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But JCPD’s searches hadn’t just revealed weapons. Also noted and of concern to Dahl were the list with the word “Raped” and 20-plus names under it and a baby doll with a hole cut in its bottom.

After also learning multiple women had lodged rape complaints against Williams with the JCPD, she set up a meeting with Turner.

She got right to the point after niceties and Turner saying “apparently, I guess, you have some concerns about it…”

Dahl responded by saying while she’s happy to prosecute for the felon in possession of ammunition charge, “it appears to me that this is something that should be explored more fully with, you know, as far as the rape charges themselves and whether or not this individual has anything on his computer.”

She told Turner of child pornography and adult rape concerns and noted Williams would “only get about four or five years” if convicted just on the ammo charge.

Dahl said she wouldn’t be surprised “if there were many more victims other than the 20 on the list,” adding that “if he really does have that number of victims, it’s my opinion that he should be doing 20 or 30 (years).”

Turner and Dahl discussed Dahl’s concerns at length. Dahl said she’d discussed the matter with her federal supervisor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Taylor, who had been her predecessor in the role with JCPD.

“He’s kind of where I’m at at the moment in that it’s kind of 50/50 at this point,” she said.

Dahl then explained several potential avenues that could lead to a warrant for the computers, including use of a seldom-used federal date rape statute.

Turner said he and Captain Kevin Peters, who came into the meeting later, had discussed other potential ways to work the case that could yield additional evidence, either about sex crimes or drug dealing.

Turner expressed uncertainty about how solid some of the leads and evidence might be. He said of the list, for instance, “I mean, all we know is there’s a piece of paper with some first names on it,” but did add: “Now, it’s a big red flag, believe me. If it’s his rape list.”

Turner also discussed the fact that one of the alleged victims might be a less-than-credible witness, something that was echoed later in the transcript by Peters.

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But Turner did not appear openly dismissive as Dahl outlined her suspicions that Williams might be a serial rapist who drugged his victims, and continued to insist she thought he represented “an ongoing danger to the community.”

“If, in fact, he has drugged women and taken advantage of them, that’s probably going to be what he does in the future,” Turner said.

A theft of cameras raises Dahl’s suspicions

Before Peters came into the meeting, Dahl brought up a complaint Williams himself had lodged of a burglary at his apartment in which only a passport, some papers and two cameras and data cards were allegedly stolen.

“(M)aybe I’m reading too much into this, but, you know, the one victim mentioned that he likes to photograph women,” Dahl said. “And I don’t know if he’s photographing them willingly or if he’s photographing victims, but the camera connection there kind of made me pause as well.”

Dahl also wondered aloud about the possibility of connecting some complainants to a search warrant affidavit.

“(I)f we could try to verify whether or not people on this list are victims, that would certainly bolster, you know, the case for a search warrant as well,” she said.

After Peters entered the meeting, he expressed slightly more skepticism about pursuing the sexual assault angle.

“(T)he only way I can see us working this case is from the drug angle,” Peters said at one point.

Peters didn’t entirely dismiss the possibility of sexual assault. He questioned whether the alleged victims that had come forward so far would be cooperative or possibly be afraid to talk.

Going after potential drug crimes and getting him charged could be an avenue, he said.

“That’s why I’m saying if we work it backwards and we get him to where we can get him on drugs, or the guns, or something like that, then these girls may come back knowing he’s going to go away for that for a while and be willing to cooperate to where we can do something,” Peters said at one point.

He also didn’t dismiss entirely the prospect of a search warrant for Williams’ computers, which had been seized but not searched after Evans’ fall.

“If somebody can find the nexus for us to get a search warrant for the computer, hey, I’m more than willing to do it,” Peters said.

The three discuss a pending use of pole cameras to observe Williams’ downtown garage and Dahl asks them, “can you … see if you can start the process for a search warrant on the computer and the cameras that they’ve got?”

Peters brings up Investigator Toma Sparks, who was leading the Williams case, and tells Dahl “Why don’t we get you and Toma together … and you can help him with wording that.”

In her lawsuit, Dahl alleges that even after the meeting with Turner and Peters, “Johnson City officers did not provide needed documentation until mid-January 2021. By that point, the evidence for the probable cause affidavit was too old and stale to meet federal requirements for obtaining search warrant.”

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