NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal lawsuit claims police officers took thousands of dollars from a businessman in their Tennessee city in exchange for obstructing efforts to investigate allegations that he was sexually assaulting multiple women for years. The police department has denied any wrongdoing.

The extortion claim involving several Johnson City Police officers appears in court filings from a federal lawsuit accusing building contractor Sean Williams — who is now in custody on state and federal criminal charges — of drugging and raping women in the East Tennessee community from 2018 to 2021 while police did little to investigate him.

There was “either an implied or explicit agreement” that the officers would shield Williams, “permitting him to continue his criminal activities of abuse and trafficking with impunity,” say lawyers for nine women, listed as Jane Does 1-9, who are suing the city.

These plaintiffs raised the extortion claims months ago, but their May 14 filing makes the claims more explicit by alleging that banking documents back the assertions. The same lawyers also revealed, in April, that they have provided hundreds of pages of information for a federal public corruption investigation of the police department.

Williams awaits trial on state charges including child rape, aggravated sexual battery and especially aggravated sexual exploitation, and federal charges including three counts of production of child sexual abuse material and one count of distribution of cocaine. He’s also charged with escape, after authorities said he kicked the window out of a federal transport van and was caught in Florida more than a month later.

The law firm representing Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment emailed by The Associated Press.

Erick Herrin, an attorney for the city and multiple officers who were sued, said all the defendants deny the allegations, but court rules limit what else he can say. In a statement, the city said it would welcome an investigation.

“There has been no evidence presented to support allegations of corruption by the Johnson City Police Department, and we welcome any investigation that could dispel such claims,” the city said.

The May 14 filing claims Williams’ business partner, referred to as Female 4, opened shell companies disguised as subcontractors and transferred thousands of dollars from Williams’ business, Glass and Concrete Contracting LLC. The money was laundered so she could take “owner draws” to pay $2,000 a week to some Johnson City Police officers, who had also seized cash from Williams’ safe, the document alleges.

The plaintiffs point to bank records, saying that for instance, during a two-week period in June 2022, Female 4 withdrew nearly $30,000 in cash from the company’s account. They say the woman appears to have withdrawn no more than $10,000 per day, “likely in an effort to evade mandatory suspicious activity.”

In a filing in March, the plaintiffs said Williams himself described the extortion in a message from jail in September 2023. They say he used a contraband cellphone to send the messages to a coconspirator who then posted them on Facebook. One mentioned weekly payments of $2,000 to officers using fraudulent 1099 tax documents and “forged owner draws.”

In a court filing in response, Female 4’s attorney said her communications with Williams have been infrequent since their personal relationship ended in 2017. The filing says the Facebook post was made by “someone using the name of Sean Williams” and says she has no relevant knowledge about the allegations and doesn’t have any relevant documents.

The attorney for Female 4 did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The local district attorney, who is prosecuting Tennessee’s charges against Williams, declined to comment on the extortion accusations, citing an ongoing investigation, and didn’t specify whether or not they’re looking into extortion claims.

The lawsuits say Williams’ crimes continued even after Jane Doe 1 survived a fall from the window of his fifth story apartment in September 2020. Officers investigating the fall found ample evidence of sexual assaults in his apartment, including a list of names labeled “Raped.” Even when that woman went public, Williams’ identity was protected as “Robert Voe.”

Kateri Lynne Dahl, a former special prosecutor in the East Tennessee U.S. attorney’s office, was brought in as a liaison with city authorities. She also filed a federal lawsuit against the city. She says she gathered substantial evidence that Williams had been dealing drugs and was credibly accused of sexually assaulting and raping multiple women, but the police refused to investigate further, and botched her effort to arrest him on an April 2021 federal felon-possessing-ammunition charge, letting him flee.

The city rebutted Dahl’s claims in a statement that pointed to prosecutorial delays.

Williams wasn’t arrested until April 2023, when a campus police officer in North Carolina found him asleep in his car and learned of the federal warrant. An affidavit says a search of the car found — along with drugs and about $100,000 in cash — digital storage devices with more than 5,000 images of child sexual abuse as well as photos and videos of 52 female victims being sexually assaulted by Williams at his Johnson City apartment while they were in an “obvious state of unconsciousness.”

Many of the videos were stored in labeled folders, and at least a half-dozen names on the folders were consistent with first names on the “Raped” list found in his apartment two and a half years earlier, the affidavit states.

Meanwhile, public outcry over the police response to complaints from a growing number of women prompted the city in the summer of 2022 to order an outside investigation into how officers handled sexual assault investigations. And in November 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a federal sex trafficking investigation.

Findings from the city’s third-party audit, released in 2023, include that police conducted inconsistent, ineffective and incomplete investigations; relied on inadequate record management; had insufficient training and policies, and sometimes showed issues with gender-based stereotypes and bias.

The city said it began improving the department’s performance while awaiting the audit’s findings, including following the district attorney’s new sexual assault investigation protocol; reviewing investigative policies and procedures; creating a “comfortable space” for victim interviews and increasing funding for officer training and a new records management system.

The Tennessee Volunteers recently jumped back into the race for 2025 five-star defensive lineman Isaiah Gibson (Warner Robins, Ga.). We went to the tape to find out why.

Warner Robins High School edge rusher Isaiah Gibson commands the attention of several premier programs. The Georgia native committed to the USC Trojans at the end of March after an unofficial visit to Los Angeles, California, but his recruitment is very much open. Gibson intends to take this one into the fall, likely until early national signing day.

The No. 27 prospect in On3’s Industry Rankings has official visits scheduled with Auburn, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee this summer; he recently removed an official visit with the Florida Gators to make room for the Vols on June 14. That slates as one of the most important recruiting weekends in head coach Josh Heupel’s tenure, as many top national prospects will be in town.

Tennessee was always quiet in this battle but has surged in recent weeks. They are one of the top names around this one, but the in-state Georgia Bulldogs seem to be the No. 1 candidate to flip Gibson from his USC commitment. His junior season tape helps contextualize why many of the top programs in college football will chase him for the next six months.

Elite Wingspan

Gibson’s wingspan was verified at 7’1″ at the On3 NIL Elite Series in Nashville, Tennessee. That measurement matches the tape, as he routinely bests offensive tackles with strong positioning by reaching their pads first. His length also enables him to quickly capture the corner, an important trait for someone with exceptional bend when capturing the edge. Gibson’s arms are his calling card as a pass rusher, and he’s got an extremely high floor in college simply because you can trust him to win matchups when lined up outside the tackle box on 3rd and long.

Leg Drive

One play that stuck in my head from his two-and-a-half-minute junior tape was a rep where the offensive tackle stayed low and initially won the rep, getting Gibson under his pads outside the quarterback’s bubble. Many pass-rushers tend to give up in these scenarios, as they don’t want to keep working past their first burst. Gibson pushed through, dragging through the tackle to complete a sack and give his team a big play. His sheer strength and determination on that rep matched every other rep on tape when he had to get low and drive through an offensive lineman to make a play.

Positional Flexibility

Gibson may one day make his money out on the edge as a specialist pass-rusher, but the allure to his ceiling is that he doesn’t have to set the edge strictly. As a rising high school senior, he measures 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds. He made lots of plays for Warner Robbins lined up as a 4-tech or a 3i; he’s got the strength and athleticism to embarrass interior offensive linemen, with the frame to get low and not be a liability in the run game.

Tennessee’s 2025 Recruiting Class

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Is making the college football playoff during the 2024 college football season a must for the Tennessee football program?

Recent changes in college football have created the potential for new expectations amongst programs. With the playoff shifting to a 12-team format, teams that maybe didn’t have annual expectations of making the playoffs beforehand, might have those thoughts now. The Tennessee Volunteers can be thrown into this mix, raising the question: Do the Tennessee Volunteers have to make the College Football Playoff in 2024?

For starters, let’s provide some perspective on the situation. Josh Heupel is entering his third season as the head coach of the Volunteers, so still relatively new and by all accounts has shown positive signs that he will be a success story. Tennessee will also be starting Nico Iamaleava at quarterback this season, which some may argue is a reason why they should make the playoffs, but it’s also his first year as the full-time starter so some grace probably needs to be given despite how talented he is.

The Volunteers are also coming off of a season in which the offense went from averaging the most points in the country under quarterback Hendon Hooker to ranking 35th in the country for points per game under Joe Milton. Heupel’s offense has proven to produce good results but getting back to the 2021 form with a first-year starting quarterback may not be a proper expectation.

Now let’s look at the schedule. Overall, it’s the most difficult schedule but it’s no cakewalk either. A non-conference game against NC State early in the season will be a good test and Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama will be the three major tests of the season – two of which are on the road.

Given the current place of the program, having playoff aspirations in Knoxville is perfectly justified, but it is not a must make the college football playoff season for the Volunteers. If Tennessee were to go 9-3 this season with losses to Oklahoma on the road, Georgia on the road and Alabama, many would probably deem that a pretty successful season. It’s not the desired result obviously, but with Heupel still being early in his tenure at Tennessee and the program starting a new quarterback, playoff expectations don’t need to heat up quite yet.

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