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Williams asks for a court order
He wants review panel under gag or disbanded
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Published: March 24, 2009
Updated: 03/24/2009 12:35 am
The retired detective who investigated the 1995 beating of a clerk at the Silk Plant Forest shop has asked a judge to place a gag order on members of a citizens committee reviewing the police investigation into the assault.
Don Williams, who was the lead detective on the case and who is now retired, also asked that a judge consider disbanding the committee.
Williams made the requests in response to a subpoena ordering him to court yesterday. The court hearing was to have dealt with the city's request that a judge order Williams to answer questions from the committee. Nothing was decided because no judge could hear the case, which was rescheduled for the week of April 6.
The Winston-Salem City Council created the citizens committee to review the Winston-Salem Police Department's investigation into the beating of Jill Marker, a clerk at the Silk Plant Forest shop off Silas Creek Parkway. Smith was convicted in 1997 and is serving 23 to 29 years in prison. Marker was pregnant at the time of the attack, in which she was struck in the head about 20 times. She later gave birth to a son while in a coma.
Smith asked for a new trial last year, alleging that witnesses against him were pressured by police and have since recanted. He also claimed that his trial attorney was ineffective. Judge Richard Doughton rejected his request after a weeklong hearing in January.
The committee has for months asked Williams to answer questions about the investigation, but Williams has refused.
A five-part investigation by the Winston-Salem Journal in 2004 included quotes from Williams in which he said he did not document some of his work in order to keep it from Smith's defense attorney. Williams has since denied saying that.
Williams, in his response to the subpoena, said that the committee has exceeded its authority. The City Council, in creating the committee, said that the committee was to examine the policies and procedures used by the police department in investigating Marker's beating, not to determine whether Smith was innocent or guilty.
Williams also asked that the City of Winston-Salem be ordered to pay his legal fees because he was employed by the city as a police detective during the original investigation.
The committee during its eight months of work has occasionally clashed with the City Council over its role.
The committee has said it cannot do a complete review of the investigation without delving into the case. Two Winston-Salem Police Department detectives have been assigned to help the committee with its investigation.
Last week the committee members said that they could find no evidence that Smith was at the shop on the day Marker was beaten. The committee also sent a draft report of its findings to the City Council last week.
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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