In 2005, Talia Williams was beaten to death by her father, a former soldier. With the help of Davis Levin Livingston, Tarshia Williams filed a lawsuit against the government in 2008. In her lawsuit, she claimed that the government was responsible for the death of her five year old daughter because the military did not report the child abuse of Talia Williams to the proper authorities.
After a short hearing in Federal Court in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the lawsuit was filed, a settlement was reached in the amount of 2 million dollars.
The case of Talia Williams is the first ever death penalty case in the state of Hawaii. Talia’s father, Naeem Williams was found guilty of the crime, and will spend a lifetime in prison without the opportunity for parole.
Davis Levin and Livingston are working with Tarshia Williams in an effort to create new federal legal policy that would force the military to contact the proper child protective services if such an incident were to occur again.
On June 29, 2005, despite finding Talia naked, mute and standing near feces, the military police that responded to the home did nothing. Talia was beaten to death by her father just a few short weeks later.
With her attorneys, Tarshia Williams is poised to propose Talia’s Law, that would require anyone that suspected child abuse on military property to report it to officials immediately. While it was clear to those that visited the home that her daughter Talia was in danger, nothing was done to stop the seven months of abuse from occurring.
Tarshia Williams is devastated at the loss of her daughter and states that her life will never be the same. Talia Williams would be 15 years old today if she had survived. Her stepmother, Delilah Williams, is halfway through a 20 year sentence for her part in the abuse. She testified against Naeem Williams during the case, describing beating, duct taping the child’s arms, and calling the child hateful names while the abuse went on.
Talia had developmental delays which made it difficult for her to describe the abuse to her mother that she was dealing with. The conditions she was living in with her father and stepmother were a nightmare.