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Attempted rape case appealed to supreme court

A convicted attempted rapist is appealing his case to the North Dakota Supreme Court this month.

According to court documents, a lawyer for Michael Alexander Williams argues that North Central District Court  Judge Gary Lee should have suppressed the victim’s identification of Williams in the case and her statements as to what he was wearing.

While the victim wasn’t able to positively identify Williams as her attacker  from the first photo lineup she was shown by police, she said she recognized him in the second photo lineup she was shown. In the more recent photo used in the second lineup, Williams had a moustache. He did not have a moustache in the older photo that was used in the first photo lineup. The woman also told police she had recognized her assailant as a man who ran past her window being chased by a white male on Dec. 31, 2014 because of his build and the clothing he was wearing. The state argues that her identification of Williams should be allowed to stand.

The victim of the attempted rape said Williams broke into her southeast Minot apartment sometime before 7 a.m. on Dec. 26, 2014, while she was taking a bath and after her husband had left for work. The woman told authorities that Williams stood in the bathroom doorway, smirking. Williams then dropped his pants, tackled her and attempted to rape her. The woman was able to fight him off and the man ran out the back door. The woman reported the attack to police and later identified Williams from the photo lineup.

In April, Lee sentenced Williams to a total of 20 years in prison for the attempted rape, with five years suspended, and to 10 years in prison for the burglary. The two sentences will run concurrently. Williams was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation following his release from prison and ordered to complete a sex offender treatment program in prison. He will receive credit for 238 days already served in jail.

In May, Williams was sentenced to an additional year in prison for exposing himself and masturbating on the doorsteps of multiple women, making sexually suggestive, harassing phone calls to another woman and knocking on a woman’s door and showing her a photo of a nude woman on his cell phone. The incidents took place in 2014 and 2015.

Williams pleade  to three indecent exposure charges, all Class A misdemeanors, to two stalking charges, both Class A misdemeanors, and to disorderly conduct, a Class B misdemeanor. The state dropped one Class A misdemeanor charge and one Class B misdemeanor refusing to halt charge as part of a plea agreement. The state had recommended that the sentence be concurrent with his sentence for attempted rape and burglary as part of the plea agreement, but Lee decided to require a stiffer sentence so the victim in the other matter would feel vindicated.

– Andrea Johnson

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