NAACP Seeks Charges In
Attack of West Va. Woman

Staff Report 
New Journal and Guide

    Hate crimes are not among the list of charges being filed against the  white men who were arrested for holding a young black woman against her will in Logan-Boone County West Virginia, according to a spokesman for the State NAACP.
    Kenneth Hale the President of the West  Virginia NAACP, said that  state nor federal have established grounds for filing hate crimes charges against six suspects who were recently arrested  related to the case. 
      Hale said that local officials have charged the men with kidnapping,  sexual assault, malicious wounding and  battery. None of them have been able to make bail, which is set at $100,000. for each of them. He said that federal authorities would not file charges as a federal hate crime because the woman was not taken across the state line nor  was she discriminated against in an employment setting. Also, the feds said it had not been determined that her civil rights were not violated because of her race.
 

   "We are still investigating this case and we hope that hate crimes can be brought forth as well," said Hale.  “There are still some unknown factors. The family of the young lady involved has not allowed the NAACP to interview her. So until then we are just monitoring the case."
        Hale said that the West Virginia NAACP, SCLC and the Charleston Ministerial Alliance have formed a Coalition to  investigate the case, which caught the nation's attention in recent weeks.  The Ministerial Alliance, he said will lead the continued investigation of the case. along with the other groups.
       The case involves reported abuse and repeated sexual assault of a 20-year-old black woman in West Virginia, still hospitalized as a result of a week-long ordeal in early September .
       Six white suspects, male and female, are in police custody for allegedly torturing and attacking Megan Williams. The woman's abductors are said to have used racial slurs in their attacks...

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