The Willis Family: Rape Charges Part 2

[DaniLouisiana]

Congratulations to Jessica! She deserves to find happiness, joy and more beautiful music.

[Grimalkin]

22 hours ago, DaniLouisiana said:

Congratulations to Jessica! She deserves to find happiness, joy and more beautiful music.

      I'm happy for her too but I'm cringing also. I know next to nothing about her but I always feel a little unsettled when someone going through massive changes makes such big life decisions before letting the dust settle. I also kind of hate this about myself. I'm such a negative Nancy at times. 

[DaniLouisiana]

It seems to me that the now fiance encouraged her to get out on her own-take steps away from her family(dad). There's a picture of the four older girls on his site,says it was taken in December.

[NakedKnees]

Congratulations to Jessica, that's a wonderful pic of her. In a weird way it seems appropriate for the whole circumstance, to me... happy and sad at the same time. 

This guy has a beautiful Instagram account. Beer sighting in one of the more recent pics, from a brewery called "Wicked Weed." Yay!

[Jenhere]

I loved listening to them sing, but the dad always seemed off to me when I watched the show.  He probably has some sort of mental illness and possibly went full on psychotic/delusional/out of touch with reality when he fled, etc.  They then have to get that under control before he can participate in his defense.  It does seem like there has been enough time though, which is probably  why the judge doesn't want anymore delays.   Although, mental health treatment in jail is pathetic, I've heard stories of people languishing for months, just like Toby is, without their meds, getting  no real treatment, etc.  I'm not saying he's not guilty, likely he is, but dragging this out isn't good for anybody. 

[choralcrusader8613]

FYI: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/cheatham/2017/03/01/willis-next-appear-court-may/98586876/

In short, Toby's trial has been postponed again to May 31. I get that they have to make completely sure he's competent, but this is bordering on asinine, to be quite frank.

Spoiler

 

[SweetLaurel]

How long has it been now?  Any legal people who would know why?  

 

[choralcrusader8613]

31 minutes ago, SweetLaurel said:

How long has it been now?  Any legal people who would know why?  

so can't speak to the legal issues, but the last time he was in court was Nov. 2 of last year. Some of the reasons for postponement of the hearing are detailed in the article.

[Palimpsest]

As the article posted by @choralcrusader8613 said, "The evidentiary hearing for Willis, who was arrested and charged with the rape of a young girl in September following a TBI investigation, has been reset to May 31, pending a mental evaluation."

So why was the mental evaluation not scheduled after the last hearing, when Toby's lawyer asked for an extension because he doubted his competency to stand trial?   I ponder ...

I'm not a legal person and scheduling a mental evaluation *may* take months, but it seems to me that someone is playing the system here.  And I think it is Toby Willis.

[choralcrusader8613]

Just now, Palimpsest said:

I'm not a legal person and scheduling a mental evaluation *may* take months, but it seems to me that someone is playing the system here.  And I think it is Toby Willis.

From my (limited) experience in my internship at a psych facility, depending on a number of factors, and where he's being held, it truly can take months, and one person can make everything fall to pieces. I do agree that there may be some gaming of the system involved, however.

[ChunkyBarbie]

Brenda Willis also said that the District Attorney's Office prosecuting her husband's case "have (the family's) complete support."

Well, that speaks volumes. My heart goes out to the girl, her family and the Willis family, not Toby. To have this dragged out must be torture for all of them. 

[Palimpsest]

21 minutes ago, choralcrusader8613 said:

From my (limited) experience in my internship at a psych facility, depending on a number of factors, and where he's being held, it truly can take months, and one person can make everything fall to pieces. I do agree that there may be some gaming of the system involved, however.

Yes. And the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow - as we see with Alan Smith.  That is still pending, AFAIK.

I suppose I'm a bit surprised because the Judge sounded rather snotty about the last delay.  I suppose I think that Toby Willis is crazy like a fox.  Jail is a bit more comfy than prison, after all.

11 minutes ago, ChunkyBarbie said:

My heart goes out to the girl, her family and the Willis family, not Toby. To have this dragged out must be torture for all of them. 

I totally agree.

[hoipolloi]

Is this the applicable law? 

[DaisyD]

Crazy like a fox. He could go into politics...

Wheels of justice are very slow. There are tons of little things that can make it drag on forever. I recently learned that if you say you can't afford a lawyer, and the court doesn't agree, you can have stuff drag on for ages until one of you caves on that point. 

[bucket]

Toby Willis has been arraigned on 4 counts of child rape.  

I am thinking of the girl and hoping justice for her is served. 

[Palimpsest]

Trial set for July 18th.

Here is the story:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/cheatham/2017/03/13/toby-willis-arraigned-four-counts-child-rape/99134826/

Quote

Toby Willis was arraigned on four counts of child rape on Monday, March 13, in Ashland City after a grand jury heard his case, said Circuit Court Clerk Julie Hibbs.

Willis pleaded not guilty to the charges, read by Circuit Judge Larry Wallace. His official plea date is set for July 11, and the trial is set to begin July 18.

Willis was set to next appear in Cheatham County General Sessions Court on May 31 after the completion of psychological testing requested by his attorney Michael Shipman, but the state decided to present its case to the March grand jury, Hibbs said.

Shipman was not present at the arraignment, but Willis was represented by a public defender, Hibbs said.

Is there any significance to the fact that Shipman (his attorney) was not present?

[DaisyD]

I'm not a lawyer, but that sounds like maybe he fired his lawyer? Usually, though, you have to be really broke to get a public defender. Maybe his lawyer was sick or couldn't make it last minute. That is really strange though.

I'm glad this is finally moving forward. 

[Four is Enough]

Can a lawyer quit in disgust? Perhaps all the "mental health" delays just played out the attorney, too. I dont' think I would be able to do a good job representing a slimeball.

[mirele]

1 hour ago, Four is Enough said:

Can a lawyer quit in disgust? Perhaps all the "mental health" delays just played out the attorney, too. I dont' think I would be able to do a good job representing a slimeball.

If you're in criminal defense, you're dealing with slimeballs on a day in, day out basis. And from what I learned in law school, you shouldn't let your personal feelings get in the way of providing the best legal service possible. (This, however, doesn't mean you're supposed to break the law or look the other way if you find out your client is doing the same.) My favorite example is from the 1990s in Utah, where a guy who ran a few video rental stores was renting "hard R" movies out of the back room. The DA prosecuted him for renting porn. The first case ended in a hung jury, because one of the jurors (rightly, IMHO) thought that he shouldn't be deciding community standards for Provo. At that point, the DA decided to retry the defendant and he was out of money. So he got a public defender, a straight arrow Mormon guy who put on a fabulous defense. It included introducing the fact that higher end hotels in Provo offered in-room porn for purchase. After two hours deliberation, he was found not guilty of 15 charges of "distributing pornography."

tl;dr: 1) if you're criminal defense, you're dealing with slimeballs just as a matter of course. 2) you can still provide an excellent defense even if you completely disagree with what your client was doing.

[Tatar-tot]

The wheels of Justice are turning although rather slowly:  Check out People Magazine.

What a creepy guy!  

[faraway]

In the comments of the People Magazine article people are saying that 4 counts of rape means there could be 4 victims. Does anyone know anything about that?

[Palimpsest]

To save people time:

The People article is just quoting the one from the Tenessean I already linked above.  No new info.  http://people.com/crime/toby-willis-father-from-tlcs-the-willis-family-arraigned-on-four-counts-of-child-rape/

 

21 minutes ago, faraway said:

In the comments of the People Magazine article people are saying that 4 counts of rape means there could be 4 victims.

The original charge specified only one minor victim.  Most likely it is 4 counts with a single victim.  However, they may have discovered more victims.

Too soon to tell. 

[DaisyD]

4 counts should mean 4 provable encounters. It could be any number of victims up to 4. (I really hated typing that.)

[faraway]

Thanks. Initially it was one victim and one encounter, so that has clearly changed.

 

[mstee]

Well clearly this wasn't a one-time deal (going by the charges). He did seem like the type that really needed control over his family, but it didn't set off alarm bells for me since we see so many fathers like that on here. I hope that his family has found a permanent house to live in and are financially ok. Hopefully this can be a fresh start for them and a time to heal.