Tami Jackson, sister of Chrissy Williams, is seen walking from a “press conference” on the levee at Rosiclare after Williams’ truck and her body inside it was pulled from the Ohio River on the afternoon of March 20, 2014. Jackson is facing only one misdemeanor count of Battery in the alleged attack in a bar in Elizabethtown that occurred just a week before, said incident not being covered by the media that fawned over and followed every search conducted for Williams. Many believe there’s something strange about how and where Williams’ truck was discovered, but law enforcement officials have not released any new information since the discovery.
HARDIN CO.—Mainstream media may not have anything to say about the arrest and subsequent charge filed against the sister of deceased woman Chrissy Williams, but the courts have finally had theirs.
Whether the battery charge against Tami Jackson, 36, of Norris City, will go anywhere or not remains to be seen, given that Hardin County State’s Attorney Tara Wallace is in charge of the prosecution, and Wallace hasn’t displayed the greatest litigational acumen in her year and a half in office, having been beaten by a pro se defendant on a marijuana charge just recently, as well as having kept another defendant past the 120 days jail time without furtherance of a trial before allowing him to be released.
However, Jackson’s charge isn’t the most complicated in the world: In fact, it’s been reduced to a misdemeanor simple Battery as opposed to the separate felony arresting charges (two felony Batteries; one felony Aggravated Assault; and one misdemeanor Disorderly Conduct) she was brought in on back in March when the incident that brought it about occurred.
And many are openly stating their opinion that Wallace charged Jackson with misdemeanor Battery for the simple fact that it won’t reflect so badly on her when she decides to dismiss the charge…the likely outcome of the case, which will have the end result that Wallace will appear to have “done something” following the alleged attack attempt Jackson made on Scotty Miller the evening of March 13; then will have appeared sensitive to the grieving Jackson by dismissing it altogether.
Threatening to kill Miller
The matter, which still hasn’t been covered by mainstream media, emerged on the night of a search conducted at Big Grande Pierre Creek in Pope County just across the Hardin County line, this search orchestrated by Jackson in ongoing efforts to find her sister Williams, who was still missing at the time.
Law enforcement reports indicate that Jackson and her mother went into the Riverfront Bar in Elizabethtown the evening of March 13 and encountered Miller there.
Miller was one of the last people known to have seen Williams alive on the night she and her SUV went missing in Rosiclare, December 2, 2013.
Jackson, of the opinion that Miller knows more than he’s saying, is reported to have gone after Miller in the bar, creating a disturbance that fell short of a full-fledged bar brawl (since Miller didn’t fight back, but instead, ran from his location playing pool to seek refuge behind the bar.)
In her efforts to reach Miller, Jackson herself attempted to get at him behind the bar (reportedly telling him she was going to “kill him,” which resulted in the felony Aggravated Assault arresting charge), and in that process, was allegedly swinging at whomever was in the way.
One of those ‘in the way’ was bartender Shannon Vaughn, who was making an effort to shield Miller from the alleged attack.
Formal charge finally filed
Court documents show that Jackson was charged with Battery by “knowingly causing bodily harm to Shannon Vaughn, in that she struck Shannon Vaughn in the head with her fist.”
The information was submitted to Wallace on April 11, just under 30 days after the incident occurred. Why it took so long to come to a formal charge is unknown. Nevertheless the charge itself wasn’t formally filed in the circuit court until April 15, just past Disclosure’s deadline for the April edition, likely a strategy affected by Wallace to cause problems for the wrap-up of the article about the discovery of Williams’ body (which occurred March 20) and her SUV in the Ohio River outside Rosiclare.
Jackson herself had at that time been opining on various Facebook pages about how her alleged attack on Miller was justified, so the public had a heads-up about the case, despite the lack of media coverage.
Court documents show that at the April 15 appearance, Jackson was pro se and was appointed Elizabethtown-based attorney Daniel Cockrum as her public defender; Cockrum was the one who ran against Wallace in November 2012 and was defeated nearly 2-1.
With counsel set for her case, Jackson was scheduled for an arraignment on May 27 at 9:30 a.m.
Deflecting criticism by mouthing
In the interim, Jackson has been deflecting any potential criticism over the case by mouthing on the various Facebook pages and in public to whomever will listen, openly stating that a video of the incident captured on bar surveillance cameras was “altered by the sheriff’s department” and that she “wasn’t read her Miranda rights” on the night she was arrested so “it’s gonna get thrown out anyway” (apparently not understanding that Miranda warnings don’t HAVE to be read unless a person is going to be kept in custody and questioned; in this case, they didn’t need to be read because the arresting entity, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department, was actually witness to the incidents that lead to the arresting charges—which differ from formal charges, something else Jackson apparently doesn’t understand—and that arresting charges are just that: charges that prompt an arrest.).
Nevertheless, Disclosure confirmed with the sheriff’s department that Jackson signed a Miranda form before the department proceeded with the investigation any further…so why she would be saying such a thing is only adding to the appearance that things are sort of unraveling for the bereaved sister.
Further evidence of this unraveling is the grief Jackson is giving the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department to anyone who will listen, then recounting that grief on the social networking sites: Jackson remains of the opinion that they are somehow at fault for her sister’s death either by action or inaction, and that they “haven’t done enough” to bring justice in the case.
Civil litigation threats
Jackson stops just short of blaming Williams’ death on foul play and naming individuals in the situation, as there has been a lot of talk about civil litigation being brought about by the last two people who saw Williams alive (Miller and his sometime girlfriend, Briannah Davis, who at one point had a Stalking/No-Contact petition out against Jackson after alleged threats made against Davis in public by Jackson in Rosiclare).
To date, there have been no named “suspects” in Williams’ death, and all indications given by Illinois State Police (who are approaching the situation with trepidation, since Jackson has verbally harangued many of them as well) are that Williams met with an accidental demise under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
However, they haven’t issued any explanation as to how the truck got in the river (with Williams in it; her body was found in the back seat); and no information has been released on cause of death (i.e. whether there was water in Williams’ lungs or not, which would indicate whether she was dead or alive when she went into the water.)
There has still also been no word on whether there will be a coroner’s inquest held in Hardin on cause and manner of death.