The U.S. government will pay an Atlanta woman
Tarshia Williams (right) $2 million for the
Hawaii beating death of her 5yr old daughter at
the hands of a former soldier in 2005. Talia
Williams (left), died after she was beaten by
father Naeem and stepmother Delilah. The man
kicked the little girl so hard he left a boot
imprint on her chest. The woman sued the US
Army for failing to protect the girl from her
father and she won the case. She is now getting
$2million. Read full story after the cut...
The settlement amount was announced Tuesday
at a brief hearing in federal court in Honolulu.
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.
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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