{"id":21517,"date":"2013-05-23T15:06:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T19:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=21517"},"modified":"2013-05-23T15:06:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T19:06:39","slug":"activist-responds-to-charge-and-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=21517","title":{"rendered":"Activist Responds To Charge And Sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Monday, community activist Michelle Williams <\/strong>pleaded guilty to <\/strong>second-degree grand theft. The charge originated after a man accused her of taking $30,000 in a real estate deal.<\/p>\n

According to Mark Cox,<\/strong> spokesman for the Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office, Ms. Williams <\/strong>appeared before County Judge William Fuente<\/strong> on Monday.<\/p>\n

After entering the plea, Judge Fuente<\/strong> sentenced Ms. Williams<\/strong> to 1 year of community control; 14 years of probation; and ordered her to pay $30,000 in restitution to the victim, with $2,000 being required immediately. She was also adjudicated guilty and must complete 500 hours of community service.<\/p>\n

The complaint, which dates back to July of 2011, concerned the purchase of a home in the 900 block of E. Chelsea. Ms. Williams<\/strong> purchased the house and resold it to David Lee<\/strong> using a quit claim deed.<\/p>\n

Lee <\/strong>filed the police report in 2011 alleging that Ms. Williams<\/strong> told him there were no liens or claims on the property. When Lee <\/strong>contacted the original owner, Howard Weems,<\/strong> he was reportedly told by Weems <\/strong>that Ms. Williams<\/strong> was assisting him with his foreclosure.<\/p>\n

Lee<\/strong> wrote in the police report, \u201cI tried to contact Michelle,<\/strong> but she is avoiding me. I now know Michelle <\/strong>sold me a house that she never owned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Williams<\/strong> was taken into custody and charged with grand theft in October 2012.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>When contacted by the Sentinel,<\/em> Ms. Williams <\/strong>initially said she couldn\u2019t comment based on the advice of her attorney. She also said she planned to appeal the sentence.<\/p>\n

However, she later released a written statement, part of which is printed below.<\/p>\n

Ms. Williams Responds<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being contacted by the Sentinel,<\/em><\/strong> I was first reluctant to give a statement because one thing I have found out about this community we laugh at one another’s situations instead of finding out the facts. My motto is \u201cthe truth is like the rain, it doesn’t care who it falls on,\u201d so you are now hearing it from the horse\u2019s mouth as one would say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2011 I purchased a home from Howard B. Weems, III, <\/strong>of Lakeland, Florida and had no intensions of flipping nor selling the property because I’d just filed my legal paperwork to run against our sitting Senator (Arthenia) Joyner <\/strong>and I wanted to reside in the district with the community and I just wanted to get my name out there and then out of nowhere this man David T. Lee<\/strong> started pursuing me to purchase the property. It was directly across the street from his home on Chelsea, I’d even told him I had no interest in selling the home until he’d put the idea in my head “if you sold it, it would give you a great campaign jump”. So listening and thinking on the idea I took the bait and sold him the house. <\/strong>I’d let him <\/strong>know he was a lucky man because several other people had been looking at the home and wanted to buy it. He then said I’m glad you sold it to me because, \u201cI didn’t want any minorities living across from me, I don’t like what the Spanish people next door are doing to their house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy this time I’m good and hot because of his comments but the deal had already been signed, sealed and funds given to pay myself and Mr. Weems<\/strong> the man I bought the house from.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Lee <\/strong>stated in his \u201csworn\u201d deposition that he pursued me in the purchase of the home, he’d also stated on page 57 of that same deposition to the state that he’d paid nothing for the property. Anyone wanting to read it I will surly give you a copy. Mr. Lee <\/strong>stated several times that he DID NOT want a title company nor a lawyer involved in this deal, that he’d “did his research” and he wanted the property, just meet him at his bank, he’d also declined meeting me for the scheduled meeting at <\/strong>Attorney Douglas\u2019 Law Firm for her to review the documents and go over my paperwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state is seeking a $30,000 restitution payout, however, He can’t get money I’m raising and the house, too. It just doesn’t work that way. A foreclosure\/contract <\/strong>attorney is diligently working on a small portion of this case for me to expose the TRUTH that the mortgage was a FRAUD from the beginning by the original owner, Howard Weems, <\/strong>of Lakeland, Florida.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u201cSo instead of letting 6 people who would NOT have been my peers choose my fate I took one of the offers from the state in the best interest of my children and especially my son who I will not lose to the streets. The state however changed their offer on Monday, May 20, 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Tampa native, Ms. Williams<\/strong> is known throughout the community. She stated that she has been an activist for several years feeding the homeless since 2007.<\/p>\n

She also provides assistance to those in need through the Black Panther Thrift Store in Progress Village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor On Monday, community activist Michelle Williams pleaded guilty to second-degree grand theft. The charge originated after a man accused her of taking $30,000 in a real estate deal. According to Mark Cox, spokesman for the Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office, Ms. Williams appeared before County Judge William Fuente […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}