Lexington woman acquitted on most charges after being arrested at racial justice protests

Sarah Williams, a Lexington activist who was arrested during racial justice protests in 2020, was found not guilty on three of four charges at the end of a jury trial Wednesday.

A jury found Williams not guilty on charges of inciting a riot, resisting arrest and drug possession. She was found guilty on one charge of disorderly conduct and was ordered to pay a $200 penalty.

“I get my life back,” Williams said after the verdict was read as she celebrated being found not guilty on most charges. “I get my name back.”

After two hours of closing statements, the jury went into deliberations Wednesday.

Williams’ charges include inciting a riot, resisting arrest, possession of drug paraphernalia, disorderly conduct, and possession of marijuana. Williams’ lead defense attorney, Daniel Whitley, and Fayette County Attorney Larry Roberts went through each charge Williams faces and presented evidence they thought proved, or disproved the charges.

Williams’ drug paraphernalia charge was dropped.

Whitley said the language of Kentucky’s “inciting a riot” law indicates that Williams would’ve had to engage in “tumultuous and violent” behavior. He referenced Roberts’ own arguments and said she was never engaged in that activity.

Whitley said Roberts admitted during the trial that Williams did not participate in any acts of violence.

Whitley also said that the law requires someone to use acts of violence to obstruct justice, which Whitley argued that Williams didn’t do.

Prosecutor: Williams encouraged others to be violent

Roberts agreed that he never said Williams participated in violence, but he argued that she encouraged others to do so. Based on language of the law, this could make her accountable for inciting a riot, he said.

Roberts referred to an incident at the “die-in” protest on June 13, when some protesters crossed a police barricade outside of the the Lexington Police Department’s headquarters to lay on the ground and act dead to honor the death of George Floyd.

”I have no doubt that she had nothing to do with this violence, but that is why they put up the barrier,” Roberts said. “... She believed she could go anywhere she wanted to. … She wanted to come to that police department, she wanted to come in the barrier instead of sitting outside. She could have protested anywhere and out in the road, but no, no she has to get inside the barrier.”

He called this a “definite attempt to have contact with the police in an antagonistic situation.”

“Sarah didn’t go inside the barrier because she didn’t want to be arrested,” Roberts added. “There was no question she was urging people to (get inside the barrier).”

Defense: There’s no proof that Williams was a disturbance

Whitley also argued that no evidence was presented to prove Williams caused a disturbance to the public, and therefore he believed she was innocent of the disorderly conduct charge.

The court heard no testimony from any business owners, clerk’s office employees, residents in the area, or others, that said they were disturbed by the protest, Whitley said.

Whitley also referenced a march organized by Assistant County Attorney Diane Minnifield in the summer of 2020, which went from police headquarters to Southland Christian Church without a permit. The march was meant to be an act of demonstration around racial justice, and a forum on policing and race relations was held at the church afterward.

A group of protesters – including Williams – interrupted the march because they felt like they hadn’t been heard as they’d spent the previous two weeks protesting. City leaders, including Police Chief Lawrence Weathers, participated in the march and the forum. Some protesters got into a confrontation with Weathers, although Williams wasn’t one of them.

“Do as I say, not as I do.” He said that is what the participants in the Southland Christian Church march demonstrated.

However, without the permit, the group marching also did not comply with law, Whitley added. Minnifield, Sheriff Kathy Witt and Police Chief Lawrence Weathers were all involved in the march and the forum.

Whitley again said it was April Taylor, Williams’ sister, who got in the face of Weathers during the march, not Williams. He said Williams can even be heard teller her sister to “stop” in bodycam footage that was presented in court.

“You see Sarah and her sister (Precious Williams) immediately tell (April) to stop, one sister even said, ‘We are not here for that,’” Whitley said. “The woman they want to punish, is the same one that when April got out of line, she told her to stop, move her out of the way, that is not why we are here.”

He argued that the attorney’s march was just the same as the protests, because people were attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights.

Whitley said police defended not making an arrest at Minnifield’s march “’because they were protesting as part of their right to free speech.’”

Whitley told the jury “do not allow them to inflict the punishment” on Williams for exercising her free speech, which he said was “core of being an American.”

“She used her words, (police) didn’t arrest her for that because it is not against the law,” Whitley said.

Roberts agreed.

“You don’t have to be mad about the language, don’t be,” Roberts said during his statements. “Her language does not convict her. Her language is what she promoted to do – to go in and do (an) illegal act potentially, to cause a riot.”

Whitley argued in court Wednesday that prosecutors didn’t have evidence to prove Williams was guilty of her drug possession and paraphernalia charges. The paraphernalia charge was eventually dropped during court proceedings Wednesday.

At the time of Williams’ arrest, Lexington Police officer Zakary Ridener said he located what appeared to be “crack pipe” on Williams’ person. During Ridener’s testimony, he said that upon further inspection a year later, investigators discovered the item was actually a “broken vape cartridge.”

“They charged her with having a crack pipe,” Whitley said. “They smeared her name for two years that this activist had a crack pipe and we came here in court to defend her name and innocence and the first thing they say is ‘We made the mistake.’ That is inexcusable.”

Whitley also said there weren’t any videos, photos or other tangible evidence presented in court to prove Williams had marijuana. He said prosecutors didn’t bring any witnesses who proved that Williams had marijuana either.

“They said the marijuana was confiscated at the jail,” Whitley said. “They didn’t even call the jailer to say, ‘We took marijuana from her.’ They had no control over those witnesses. How can you convict someone with marijuana when they didn’t even show you that marijuana? Instead, they said, ‘As an officer of the law, you have to trust me.’ Is that proof without reasonable doubt? No.

“As a matter of law you have to find her not guilty.”

County Attorney Larry Roberts argued that “uncontradicted” testimony of a trained, sworn police officer was enough proof to convict.

“(Whitley) is demanding expert testimony for this charge. You don’t have to do that. (The judge) is the referee in the game, but this isn’t a game, he is the judge in the court. He tells you what is admissible and what is not,” Roberts argued.