Willis Family including rape charges

[Casserole]

2 hours ago, faraway said:

 

What really speaks against this theory: Jessica was working on her leather craft online store which was supposed to launch in the next few days. She was promoting it on IG and next thing you know the allegations happened and everything went dark.

I am sadly comforted by this. Like I said above, Jessica's timeline just made me raise an eyebrow. A weird, instinctual gut feeling, if you will. But if she was mid-launching a new business venture and just threw in the towel and shut down after the news broke, I'd say she was just as blindsided as the rest of them. 

I hope the family is able to rebound back from this and find their way without the band and the man they thought their father was. 

11 minutes ago, Coy Koi said:

Not necessarily. In Tennessee, Incest is a Class C felony which, as far as I can tell, could apply to adult relatives in a consensual relationship. Rape of a Child is a Class A felony. They could charge someone with both, but it's entirely possible that they wouldn't.

Gotcha, thanks. I asked because, for example, like the S'Mortons, it immediately said incest, rape of a child. 

 

Either way, I hope bringing these allegations to light will help the victim heal, move on, and get the help they need. Whether they report the rape the day of or 50+ years later, they're brave for telling someone. If I'm reading correctly though (link below), statute of limitations for any offense against a child in TN is 4 years after the offense is committed or at age of majority; whichever comes later. So if the child was 12 at the time of the rape like others have been assuming, the statute would have run out... meaning someone who was 6 years old 12 years ago would be at age of majority now... meaning his victim may have been even younger than we thought. 

 

http://statelaws.findlaw.com/tennessee-law/tennessee-criminal-statute-of-limitations-laws.html

[Snarkle Motion]

13 minutes ago, Coy Koi said:

Not necessarily. In Tennessee, Incest is a Class C felony which, as far as I can tell, could apply to adult relatives in a consensual relationship. Rape of a Child is a Class A felony. They could charge someone with both, but it's entirely possible that they wouldn't.

I seriously hope it's not the case but I thought they may have not charged him with incest as it would essentially out the victim. Although it's a horrendous crime regardless the thought of a father so intensely involved and controlling of his kids also taking advantage of them in this way absolutely enrages me. 

[Coy Koi]

12 minutes ago, Casserole said:

If I'm reading correctly though (link below), statute of limitations for any offense against a child in TN is 4 years after the offense is committed or at age of majority; whichever comes later. So if the child was 12 at the time of the rape like others have been assuming, the statute would have run out... meaning someone who was 6 years old 12 years ago would be at age of majority now... meaning his victim may have been even younger than we thought. 

 

http://statelaws.findlaw.com/tennessee-law/tennessee-criminal-statute-of-limitations-laws.html

But that link also says that the statute of limitations for a Class A felony is 15 years, so it would only make sense to go by that.

What I'm curious about is what evidence they would have 12 years after the fact. I understand why a victim would wait to come forward, but whatever other evidence they have, where the heck has it been for the last 12 years?

[Casserole]

9 minutes ago, Coy Koi said:

But that link also says that the statute of limitations for a Class A felony is 15 years, so it would only make sense to go by that.

What I'm curious about is what evidence they would have 12 years after the fact. I understand why a victim would wait to come forward, but whatever other evidence they have, where the heck has it been for the last 12 years?

Me too. I hate that I'm curious because I also believe the victim should have control over how much is released to the public. I blame my curiosity in this case, the S'Mortons case and everyone like them, on my love/overwatching of Law & Order SVU. 

[Buzzard]

4 hours ago, Casserole said:

If the family is living in their bus, which is also their method of transportation, the hitchhiking makes sense. If he were trying to run, he'd have to take his whole house and family with him. 

Jessica's boyfriend's posts and the timeline of her quitting the family/band and these charges do raise an eyebrow. I don't want to break rules and speculate... but the charge from TBI would be incest if his kids were involved, right? So since the charge is rape of a child and not incest, it's safe to assume the victim is not related to the Willis clan? Or does Tennessee not differentiate? 

Law enforcement 101 - fleeing felon

1 - check known locations

2 - check spending (credit cards, bank withdrawals etc)

3 - ping cell phone

etc.

If he was really fleeing hitchhiking (sans cells phone) makes a world of sense.  They'd put out a BOLO on any vehicle associated with him so thats not an option. He couldnt rent a car, use uber or a cab... the only untraceable means of transportation is truly your thumb.  Its kind of funny, though. In 2016 you really cant hide.

[mstee]

1 hour ago, Coy Koi said:

But that link also says that the statute of limitations for a Class A felony is 15 years, so it would only make sense to go by that.

What I'm curious about is what evidence they would have 12 years after the fact. I understand why a victim would wait to come forward, but whatever other evidence they have, where the heck has it been for the last 12 years?

I wonder if the victim's testimony would be enough to convict? Or maybe the victim disclosed what had happened to another person around that time and they are willing to testify too? I'd imagine that by now there would be no physical evidence left of that crime. Maybe they feel like testimony alone is enough to bring him to trial. 

[sunshine]

It seems like these family shows on TLC are getting in some trouble.

[MyMilkshake]

TLC should just stick with shows about cakes. 
 

[RosyDaisy]

Cake boss wasn't free from perverts. Remy Gonzales (sister Lisa's husband) plead guilty to sexually assaulting a minor. TLC needs to go back to it's roots, and do thorough background checks.

[candygirl200413]

I would totally be excited to go back to It's a ____ story!

[IntrinsicallyDisordered]

8 hours ago, Coy Koi said:

 

What I'm curious about is what evidence they would have 12 years after the fact. I understand why a victim would wait to come forward, but whatever other evidence they have, where the heck has it been for the last 12 years?

My first thought was that some kind of photo or video evidence of the crime was found, but then I'm tired and sad and find it difficult to believe they'd move so quickly and surely "just" on the word of the victim, especially for a crime committed so long ago.

 

[Toothfairy]

Does TLC do background checks? Seriously. 

[AmazonGrace]

It certainly looks bad for TLC since this keeps happening over and over again,  but if this is the first time that  he was linked to a  child related crime, I'm not sure what they could have uncovered in a background check other than that he was never arrested for anything before this.

Not sure that sentence made sense.

[Coy Koi]

21 minutes ago, Toothfairy said:

Does TLC do background checks? Seriously. 

I have no doubt they do. But not because they care if they're giving a platform to sex offenders, child abusers, bigots, or otherwise shitty people to be portrayed in a positive light and promote their poisonous beliefs. Just so they can say, "Shucks, we had no way of knowing this!" when scandals erupt.

[AmazonGrace]

2 minutes ago, Coy Koi said:

I have no doubt they do. But not because they care if they're giving a platform to sex offenders, child abusers, bigots, or otherwise shitty people to be portrayed in a positive light and promote their poisonous beliefs. Just so they can say, "Shucks, we had no way of knowing this!" when scandals erupt.

The whole reality show agenda and the idea of shiny happy people in well adjusted families are a little at odds I think. Happy families are nice and all but a bit boring to watch on TV. Soap operas have an emotional  trainwreck happening  every week, reality shows thrive on drama, whether real or scripted.  The last time anyone watched a happy family on TV was probably the Huxtables... How many balanced and well adjusted parents want their children's whole life public on the telly anyway?

[faraway]

Update: He was moved to a jail in TN.

http://www.newschannel5.com/news/toby-willis-moved-to-cheatham-co-jail

Quote

"We are continuing to do everything we can to not only understand the allegation, but trying to understand what happened before his arrest," said Josh DeVine, a Spokesperson for the TBI.

Whatever the part about understanding the allegation means...

[Four is Enough]

16 hours ago, Coy Koi said:

But that link also says that the statute of limitations for a Class A felony is 15 years, so it would only make sense to go by that.

What I'm curious about is what evidence they would have 12 years after the fact. I understand why a victim would wait to come forward, but whatever other evidence they have, where the heck has it been for the last 12 years?

Children keep diaries. Children draw pictures. Children hide things when their parents don't believe what they tell them. There may be physical evidence that has been kept hidden. There is possibly something like a diary or drawing, as I mentioned. 

Why come forward so late? Sometimes, memories are hidden as well.They can be brought to the forefront when a trigger happens. It could be anything.. (one of my son's victims suddenly remembered what had happened to him when his birthday came again. The incident had happened at the time of the previous birthday.) I would imagine that some things are so traumatic that years can pass before the memory comes forward. This victim might not have had the words to express it at the younger age.

[rumored]

Is there's any chance the state would have his DNA on file? My first thought with an arrest for years-old rape allegations would be the rape kit backlog:

http://www.endthebacklog.org/Tennessee

 

 

[Alimal]

On September 11, 2016 at 10:47 PM, Natalie22 said:

This has already played out with Jenny, the second oldest daughter.  In their show before TLC, it showed that she was interested in becoming a vet, but was pressured by her dad and older siblings to stick with the band instead.  She seemed to take the lead with the animals - especially the dogs and puppies - in the TLC show, so it seems she may still have an interest.  He didn't tell her no outright, but he did that thing that parents of soon to be adults can do, which is say they're giving you advice, when they're really trying to get you to make a specific decisions.

As for Jessica, I can't blame her for being tired.  It sounds that at 13 she said she wanted to voice lessons and somehow Toby turned that into her being the lead in a band.  She seems to have been somewhat the boss of the other siblings, which she may now resent as it could have alienated her from just being their sister.  The scene with Toby telling her that because she took singing lessons she must know how to teach Jasmine was ridiculous.  Does that mean that everyone who went to public school should automatically be able to teach at a school?  Lots of people who are great at things are terrible at teaching them to others.  It was also clear that Jasmine was really uncomfortable with doing warm ups in front of the entire camera crew.  

Jeremy seems like the kind of guy that can be super intense and needs help relaxing.  Instead of being able to do that, his dad has basically made him feel like he always needs to be intense in order to excel at anything.  He may have similar feelings to Jessica about basically being the boss of his siblings, especially the boys.  

I think someone mentioned a couple pages ago that you could definitely tell who his favourite children were.  I was wondering if anyone had an easier time picking up on that.  I'm absolutely terrible at it (though it definitely seemed like Jessica was one).

I think if I've learned anything from the Duggars, Bates, etc. it's that all you need to do anything is complete a b.s. correspondence course. With that certificate you print out at home, you are now qualified to deliver babies, teach any subject, run for public office...

[LadyCrow1313]

7 hours ago, Toothfairy said:

Does TLC do background checks? Seriously. 

If they did and found something suspicious/criminal, does anyone think that they would be ethical enough to report it to the appropriate authorities?

[Coy Koi]

37 minutes ago, Four is Enough said:

Children keep diaries. Children draw pictures. Children hide things when their parents don't believe what they tell them. There may be physical evidence that has been kept hidden. There is possibly something like a diary or drawing, as I mentioned. 

Why come forward so late? Sometimes, memories are hidden as well.They can be brought to the forefront when a trigger happens. It could be anything.. (one of my son's victims suddenly remembered what had happened to him when his birthday came again. The incident had happened at the time of the previous birthday.) I would imagine that some things are so traumatic that years can pass before the memory comes forward. This victim might not have had the words to express it at the younger age.

There may well be such evidence, but I don't still have anything from my childhood years that my parents never saw (granted, my mom was a huge snoop, but still, in most cases it seems that in such a long period of time, such things would have either been seen by someone or discarded). As I said, I completely understand why a victim may take any length of time to come forward (I've been a sexual assault victim myself years ago and still don't really quite believe it, even though intellectually I know it's true), and I know other evidence COULD be forthcoming so many years later, but it just seems quite unusual in the circumstances here. I certainly don't want anything to be made public that identifies any victim who doesn't wish to be identified, but I just can't help but find it interesting.

[Snarkle Motion]

The hitchhiking aspect is beyond bizarre. Did he hitchhike to the same location his family was performing? That's hardly a smart move for trying to evade law enforcement but maybe he felt he needed to be there with them. 

[AlwaysExcited]

I think we need a list of fundie criminals similar to upcoming babies and unmarried fundies. At this point I have a hard time keeping in mind who did what.

[Front Hugging Fiend]

1 hour ago, Snarkle Motion said:

The hitchhiking aspect is beyond bizarre. Did he hitchhike to the same location his family was performing? That's hardly a smart move for trying to evade law enforcement but maybe he felt he needed to be there with them. 

I'm with you on that one. I'm not convinced that he's innocent but it makes absolutely no sense to me that he would be 'fleeing' or 'hitchhiking' to those exact locations. Something about this just doesn't add up. 

We obviously don't know enough. And I respect the victim's privacy - but gosh, I hope that they (and the kids in the family) are okay. 

[mstee]

5 hours ago, faraway said:

Update: He was moved to a jail in TN.

http://www.newschannel5.com/news/toby-willis-moved-to-cheatham-co-jail

Whatever the part about understanding the allegation means...

I would hope that they "understand" the allegation seeing as they have already filed charges??