As a transplanted black West Virginian (born and raised in Whitman Creek in Logan County) I read with interest a Feb. 28 Associated Press article reporting the Williams family's outrage over seemingly light sentences given the attackers of their daughter, Megan; I share their outrage, but I blame them more than I do the county prosecutor.

I have followed this case from its beginning. Williams is the young black lady who was kidnapped, raped, imprisoned, maliciously wounded and sexually and physically debased by a gang of seven white hooligans in the Big Creek area of Logan County. Operating on a tip from an anonymous caller, deputies rescued Williams from her tormentors on Sept. 8, 2007, after nearly a week of near unmentionable torture. Despite her reported mental challenges, Williams was able to recount her experiences to the police in full detail and to identify her assailants. The police rounded up the accused with alacrity and jailed them.

I, most of Logan County and much of the country were appalled, shocked and outraged when first we learned of Williams' ordeal. Logan county residents and countless other West Virginians, black and white, inundated the Logan Banner with letters expressing sympathy and demanding justice. Some Logan black leaders - the Rev. Audie Murphy, president of the Logan NAACP, and members of the Ministerial Alliance - demanded also that hate-crimes be added to the charges pending against the accused. County Prosecutor Brian Abraham met with local, state and national NAACP officials over a three-hour period and advised them that the charges filed were sufficient to ensure long prison terms for the accused.

Hate crime in West Virginia is a civil rights matter carrying lighter sentences than the felonies charged. Since there was a prior, personal relationship between Williams and one of her attackers, a hate-crime charge would be problematic.

Those leaders were persuaded, but held onto a cautious wait-and-watch mind-set. Their caution stemmed from their stated belief that, in the past, white-on-black crime was prosecuted there with a wink and a nod and leniency, while black-on-white crime was prosecuted with vigor and severity. Thus the stage was set to mete out justice: a speedy trial; a proven prosecutor with an excellent theory of the case and no intentions to run for re-election; a compelling and sympathetic victim; a klatch of unattractive, recidivist suspects; and an outraged populace.

Then the scene seemed to change. Williams' adoptive mother, Carmen Williams, opted away from the prosecutor's stated preference for anonymity for sex crime victims. She wanted to let the world know in graphic and minute detail all that had beset her daughter and precisely who it was that did it to her. (Cynics have said it was also to better enable sympathizers to send donations.) Press conferences proliferated, and the tone and content of them evolved. They took on the characteristics of repertory theater. Some performances bore a near pornographic taint and seemed to cast Williams' ordeal as a titillating, sadomasochistic tryst or dalliance, rather than the evil, sadistic, abduction, rape and torture the police and prosecutor charged.

Thus began Williams' transformation from sympathetic and compelling victim to some sort of macabre celebrity, much to the stated chagrin of the prosecutor and to the probable relief and delight of the attorneys for the accused.

The prosecutor, knowing Williams' intellectual limitations and aware that defense attorneys can cross-examine, asked that interviews and public appearances not take place. But to no avail. Only when Abraham threatened to seek a guardian ad litem to look after Williams' best interest, did her parents slow the press conferences.

Somewhere along the line, Williams acquired one Malik Shabazz, co-founder of the Black Lawyers for Justice, based in Washington, D.C., as her "legal adviser," whatever that means. With a group called the New Black Panther Party and a random assortment of other obscure activist (?) entities, they descended upon Logan with a paternalistic bent and an evangelistic zeal to stage a rally for the support and protection of black womanhood, and to demand that hate-crimes be charged. Their attitude was eerily reminiscent of the KKK's early rationale for its malevolent activities.

Thoughtful Logan residents, not wanting to compromise a jury pool, stayed away from the rally. The boisterous outsiders wrote them off as losers, stood on the Logan County Courthouse steps, stamped their feet and thrust their fists into the air and demanded hate-crime charges.

Virtually ignored by blacks in Logan, they later took their show to Charleston for a march. Dismissing the wishes of black leaders there (as they had in Logan) and defining those local leaders' refusal to participate in the planned march as Uncle Tomism and political consorting with "the enemy" mayor, they took their ragtag band and marched - all 200 of them. Somehow they were able to persuade the Rev. Al Sharpton to lay aside his principles for a moment and speak to the handful of true believers. After lamenting the sparse local turnout, Sharpton also called for a hate-crime charge. And with a televised, theatrical flourish, Sharpton presented $1,000 to Williams' mother as a "Christmas gift for Megan."

Thus, as the prosecutor investigated his charges and developed his case, Williams' parents, her "legal adviser" and hangers-on began presenting a contrary, parallel, revenue-generating, hate-crime media case. The bottom line of their myriad public statements was that all Logan and Kanawha County whites are racist, and all the blacks there are simple-minded Uncle Toms and handkerchief-headed Aunt Jemimas who are insufficiently outraged, and whose abhorrence for Williams' ordeal was not deeply enough felt nor stridently enough stated. That is not the way to gain or maintain the sympathies of a potential jury pool.

As a transplanted black West Virginian (born and raised in Whitman Creek in Logan County) I read with interest a Feb. 28 Associated Press article reporting the Williams family's outrage over seemingly light sentences given the attackers of their daughter, Megan; I share their outrage, but I blame them more than I do the county prosecutor.

I have followed this case from its beginning. Williams is the young black lady who was kidnapped, raped, imprisoned, maliciously wounded and sexually and physically debased by a gang of seven white hooligans in the Big Creek area of Logan County. Operating on a tip from an anonymous caller, deputies rescued Williams from her tormentors on Sept. 8, 2007, after nearly a week of near unmentionable torture. Despite her reported mental challenges, Williams was able to recount her experiences to the police in full detail and to identify her assailants. The police rounded up the accused with alacrity and jailed them.

I, most of Logan County and much of the country were appalled, shocked and outraged when first we learned of Williams' ordeal. Logan county residents and countless other West Virginians, black and white, inundated the Logan Banner with letters expressing sympathy and demanding justice. Some Logan black leaders - the Rev. Audie Murphy, president of the Logan NAACP, and members of the Ministerial Alliance - demanded also that hate-crimes be added to the charges pending against the accused. County Prosecutor Brian Abraham met with local, state and national NAACP officials over a three-hour period and advised them that the charges filed were sufficient to ensure long prison terms for the accused.

Hate crime in West Virginia is a civil rights matter carrying lighter sentences than the felonies charged. Since there was a prior, personal relationship between Williams and one of her attackers, a hate-crime charge would be problematic.

Those leaders were persuaded, but held onto a cautious wait-and-watch mind-set. Their caution stemmed from their stated belief that, in the past, white-on-black crime was prosecuted there with a wink and a nod and leniency, while black-on-white crime was prosecuted with vigor and severity. Thus the stage was set to mete out justice: a speedy trial; a proven prosecutor with an excellent theory of the case and no intentions to run for re-election; a compelling and sympathetic victim; a klatch of unattractive, recidivist suspects; and an outraged populace.

Then the scene seemed to change. Williams' adoptive mother, Carmen Williams, opted away from the prosecutor's stated preference for anonymity for sex crime victims. She wanted to let the world know in graphic and minute detail all that had beset her daughter and precisely who it was that did it to her. (Cynics have said it was also to better enable sympathizers to send donations.) Press conferences proliferated, and the tone and content of them evolved. They took on the characteristics of repertory theater. Some performances bore a near pornographic taint and seemed to cast Williams' ordeal as a titillating, sadomasochistic tryst or dalliance, rather than the evil, sadistic, abduction, rape and torture the police and prosecutor charged.

Thus began Williams' transformation from sympathetic and compelling victim to some sort of macabre celebrity, much to the stated chagrin of the prosecutor and to the probable relief and delight of the attorneys for the accused.

The prosecutor, knowing Williams' intellectual limitations and aware that defense attorneys can cross-examine, asked that interviews and public appearances not take place. But to no avail. Only when Abraham threatened to seek a guardian ad litem to look after Williams' best interest, did her parents slow the press conferences.

Somewhere along the line, Williams acquired one Malik Shabazz, co-founder of the Black Lawyers for Justice, based in Washington, D.C., as her "legal adviser," whatever that means. With a group called the New Black Panther Party and a random assortment of other obscure activist (?) entities, they descended upon Logan with a paternalistic bent and an evangelistic zeal to stage a rally for the support and protection of black womanhood, and to demand that hate-crimes be charged. Their attitude was eerily reminiscent of the KKK's early rationale for its malevolent activities.

Thoughtful Logan residents, not wanting to compromise a jury pool, stayed away from the rally. The boisterous outsiders wrote them off as losers, stood on the Logan County Courthouse steps, stamped their feet and thrust their fists into the air and demanded hate-crime charges.

Virtually ignored by blacks in Logan, they later took their show to Charleston for a march. Dismissing the wishes of black leaders there (as they had in Logan) and defining those local leaders' refusal to participate in the planned march as Uncle Tomism and political consorting with "the enemy" mayor, they took their ragtag band and marched - all 200 of them. Somehow they were able to persuade the Rev. Al Sharpton to lay aside his principles for a moment and speak to the handful of true believers. After lamenting the sparse local turnout, Sharpton also called for a hate-crime charge. And with a televised, theatrical flourish, Sharpton presented $1,000 to Williams' mother as a "Christmas gift for Megan."

Thus, as the prosecutor investigated his charges and developed his case, Williams' parents, her "legal adviser" and hangers-on began presenting a contrary, parallel, revenue-generating, hate-crime media case. The bottom line of their myriad public statements was that all Logan and Kanawha County whites are racist, and all the blacks there are simple-minded Uncle Toms and handkerchief-headed Aunt Jemimas who are insufficiently outraged, and whose abhorrence for Williams' ordeal was not deeply enough felt nor stridently enough stated. That is not the way to gain or maintain the sympathies of a potential jury pool.

Undaunted by their dismal showing in Charleston, Shabazz et al. took their quest for the silver bullet of a hate-crime charge to Texas, that bastion of racial harmony of Jasper (chain to pickup truck) fame. There they met at least two kindred spirits, one Sarah Kanorwala of Houston and U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Kanorwala said she and Houston residents were sincerely disgusted and more intensely horrified by Williams' ordeal than were West Virginians. To prove that "fact" Kanorwala promoted a punk rock concert to raise money. And they "had a nice turnout." Some 40 people at $5 a head raised a whopping $200, which they "FedExed to Williams' bank account." Then highly regarded Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee reportedly mused aloud that she didn't see why a hate-crime charge couldn't be added. All of that was reported back to the potential Logan jury pool.

I suspect West Virginia officials received letters urging them to add hate-crimes charges and probably took those requests under advisement. To no one's surprise, one of the accused quickly pleaded guilty to such a charge.

However numerous are the obvious physical and character flaws of Williams' attackers, they can at least count better than Williams' parents and their race carpetbagging true-believer supporters, who seem more intent to ensure Williams' macabre celebrity, and to raise money than to see justice done. Those accused miscreants know that a two- to 10-year sentence for hate crimes is preferable to 35 years to life in the penitentiary for kidnapping, rape, malicious wounding and physical and sexual debasement. They are now lining up to plead guilty to the former, four so far.

That is unfortunate. Megan was and still is vulnerable, and the crimes committed against her warrant the severest possible penalties. That may not happen. The road to it was possibly compromised by Williams' parents' seeming lust for 15 minutes of fame. Williams' parents need to understand that a prosecuting attorney cannot simply "demand" harsh penalties; he must first prove the charges - beyond a reasonable doubt.

It is clear to us all that some very bad things were done to Megan. Proving  who did what demands thorough investigation and solid preparation, not race-baiting hysterics and impotent attempts at intimidation. The fact that the victim's parents are aggrieved at the horrific nature of what was done does not entitle them to dictate legal or trial strategy; nor to develop a contrary, parallel, emotion-laden case more to their liking; nor to ignore requests to refrain from public comment. The display of Megan's vulnerabilities and wounds would be more appropriate and more persuasive in a search for justice if presented to a sitting jury than to the public at large.

Now that Williams' parents' media road show has obscenely cluttered the legal landscape and Megan's mind with a plethora of confusing, emotion-laden, legally implausible theories, they want to fault the prosecution for trying to salvage some semblance of justice with plea bargains.

Their "legal adviser" at first agreed with the plea-bargain strategy. And from Megan's hospital bedside in Charleston, he gave Abraham a condescending pat on the head for it, smugly saying both he and Megan were satisfied. Williams' parents' present public show of parental love and devotion and their on-stage tears would have rung more sincere had they come in those months when Megan was first getting into a personal relationship with what now appears to be one of her attackers. Or in all that time when she reportedly spent weeks from home without inquiry or correction by her parents.

This case was not just about Megan; it is also about justice and the future safety, security and serenity of vulnerable female Logan county residents, and the confidence they should have in the protection afforded by the criminal justice system.

It obviously escaped the notice of Williams' parents and their pseudo-legal, boisterous brigade, but Logan County black leaders know how to cut it. They always have. So do the county prosecutors. Their records show it. And they were cutting it before the intrusion, albeit quietly, sedately, effectively. The Williams case outcome could have been to them a test of the depth and resilience of the black/white community relations they have steadily forged over time. Even at this distance, I know those people. The Black Lawyers for Justice and its ilk couldn't even carry water for Logan County's aging black activists. I applaud their and Abraham's patience with this ragtag band of impudent outsider intruders.

Hopefully, Williams' parents' seeming avarice and certain meddling have not fatally damaged the state's case and deferred the black leaders' just expectations to see if white-on-black crime is treated the same as they seem think has been the case with the obverse. They deserve better and, most of all, Megan deserves better.

Saji is a retired procurement analyst and program director for the Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Program for the National Park Service.