Accused Rock Hill educator has $1.2 million bond reduced to $15,000

A Northwestern High School administrator accused of sexual misconduct with students had his $1.2 million bond reduced to $15,000 Thursday after telling a judge that he is not a threat.

“I apologize for us being here,” Kenneth Andrew Williams told Circuit Court Judge Daniel Dewitt Hall on Thursday in a York courtroom. Williams said the 12 charges against him are “an embarassment.”

“I am not a threat to the community,” Williams told the judge.

Williams’ attorney, Twana Burris-Alcide, requested the hearing to ask for a reduction in the $1.2 million bond set for Williams on May 12, when a second set of six charges were filed against him by Rock Hill police. Williams has been in the York County Detention Center since that date.

Burris-Alcide argued that Williams, 31, who was released on $110,000 bond on the first set of six charges, filed April 26 by Rock Hill police, is not a flight risk. She urged Hall to “not set bail based on the publicity and the commentary surrounding this case.”

Hall listened as assistant solicitor Erin Joyner of the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office recounted details of the evidence against Williams. He also heard a relative and a friend of Williams vouch for his character, and listened to a written statement by the mother of a 16-year-old victim.

“If the allegations are true, there certainly is a risk of contacting the victims in the case,” Hall said in announcing his decision. Hall said that was the greatest concern about lowering the bond.

Hall set $2,500 bond on each of the six charges filed May 12, or $15,000 total bond, with the condition that Williams live in the Anderson County town of Pendleton with his parents and meet other conditions. Hall said the initial $110,000 bond on the first six charges against Williams would stand.

Other conditions of the lowered bond set by Hall are:

▪  Williams must agree to electronic GPS monitoring.

▪  Williams cannot have any access to personal electronic devices, including a cell phone, iPad or computer, for any reason.

▪  Williams cannot leave Anderson, Oconee, Pickens or Greenville counties without contacting his attorney, though he can visit the office of a Columbia civil attorney.

▪  Williams cannot have contact with any of his victims, and he cannot be in the presence of anyone under age 18 without another adult.

▪  Williams cannot visit any school or college campus.

Joyner told Hall that Williams met the 16-year-old victim connected to the first set of charges against him in 2013, when she was in ninth grade at Rock Hill High School, where Williams taught physical education.

Joyner said Williams began pushing to meet the victim’s mother, whom he began dating.

She said Wiliams also spent time with the victim and her brother, and he spent nights in the family’s home. The female victim later was allowed to spend nights with Williams at his home, Joyner said.

In July 2014, Williams was promoted to an assistant principal at Northwestern High School. Police said the victim also was a student at Northwestern at the time the sexual relationship with Williams began.

One night when the victim stayed at his home, Joyner said, Williams “tried to convince her that it would be OK for them to have a romantic relationship.” Two weeks later, when the victim was 15, they had sex, she said.

The sexual relationship continued, Joyner said, until the victim told Williams she wanted it to stop.

Joyner said Williams threatened the victim, that he would take referrals off her school record if she complied with his demands, and would put the referrals back on if she did not.

Williams also is accused of sending sexually explicit pictures and videos of himself via SnapChat, a social media platform, to the first victim and another girl, who was 16 and a Northwestern student at the time.

Williams “always would send sexually explicit messages through SnapChat” rather than text message, because the SnapChat server deletes messages after they are viewed by the recipient, Joyner told the judge.

However, Joyner said the victim received one SnapChat message from Williams which she opened April 26 at the Rock Hill Police Department, where detectives recorded her opening it.

Joyner also said Williams made comments about Victoria’s Secret underwear to the victim and made inuendos to her “about a threesome.”

Joyner said police accessed logs of SnapChat activity to corraborate the two victims’ accounts that Williams used SnapChat to send them nude pictures of himself and videos of himself masturbating.

Joyner also read to the court portions of two letters of reprimand that Williams received from principals at Rock Hill and Northwestern high schools regarding inappropriate contact with students. The letters were written in 2013 and again in 2015.

In addition, Joyner read to the court a statement from the mother of the first 16-year-old victim. The mother wrote that “my baby girl is shutting down to the outside world.”

The mother wrote that her daughter did not report incidents involving Williams earlier because “she thought that she would be partly to blame by those around her.”

Burris-Alcide read two letters of support for Williams, from a retired educator and a longtime resident of his hometown of Pendleton, who said Williams was a good role model and not a threat.

In addition, a woman who identified herself as an aunt of Williams spoke to vouch for his character, telling Hall that Williams “has a heart of gold.” He has spoken in church to encourage young people, she said.

Another character witness for Williams, Whitney Cain of Rock Hill, told the judge he has known Williams for more than 10 years, and that he trusts Williams to pick up his children.

Cain said that Williams “has been a mentor to my kids and other kids.”

The initial charges against Williams filed April 26 are four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and one count each of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and unlawful conduct toward a child.

The second set of charges filed May 12 are one count of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and five counts of disseminating obscene material to a person younger than 18.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Accused Rock Hill educator has $1.2 million bond reduced to $15,000."