Naheem and Delilah |
Tarshia
Williams filed the lawsuit against the government over the 2005 death
of her daughter, Talia. The lawsuit, filed in Honolulu in 2008, claimed
the military didn't report to the proper authorities that Talia's father
and stepmother "abused and tortured" her throughout the seven months
she lived in Army housing in Hawaii.
"I
will never have complete closure because my daughter is gone," she said
by phone after the hearing. "And all the abuse she went through, I will
never get over that. My healing will never be complete."
In what
was the first death penalty case to go to trial in the history of
Hawaii's statehood, Naeem Williams was convicted of murder in his
daughter's death and sentenced to life in prison without possibility for
parole.
Talia's stepmother, Delilah Williams, testified against
her husband as part of a deal with prosecutors for a 20-year sentence.
She provided disturbing details of abuse that included withholding food
for days at a time, keeping her out of school to hide from others the
physical signs of beatings and whipping the child while she was
duct-taped to a bed.Talia died July 16, 2005, after prosecutors say her father dealt a blow so hard it left knuckle imprints on her chest.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com..The
settlement brings some relief because it ends years of litigation and
prevents Tarshia Williams from having to return to Hawaii for a nonjury
trial that was scheduled for June, she said."I
just been through it last year," she said of testifying at the murder
trial and sitting through graphic accounts of what Talia suffered. "I
don't have to go through all the things that happened to her all over
again. It will always be in my mind. It will never go away."
At
Naeem Williams' trial, she testified that the last time she saw Talia
was when the child left South Carolina to live with her father in
Hawaii. She said the last time she spoke to Talia was by telephone on
July 2, 2005.The settlement
has been approved by the Justice Department and will be paid in about
six to eight weeks, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Helper said in court.
He declined to comment after the hearing.
Tarshia
Williams and her Honolulu attorneys want to work on federal legislation
that that would require the military to directly report child abuse to
state child protective services, said one of her attorneys, Mark Davis."We
hope that what may come out of this case are some fundamental, systemic
changes," Davis said. "There were so many opportunities that were
missed to try to remove this child from this toxic environment."
A
judge's 2010 ruling noted some of those missed opportunities, including
one on June 29, 2005. "The military police responded to the Williams'
home, but despite finding Talia, 'naked and mute, in a room standing
near feces on the floor' and thinking 'something did not look right,' no
reports were ever made to CPS," said the order by U.S. District Judge
Alan Kay in allowing the lawsuit to move forward.
"She would be about 15 now," Tarshia Williams said. "She would be in high school."
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