In this issue, we bring you two stories that exist only because the people in them decided to speak out.
Journalist Logan Hullinger and Baltimore Beat Managing Editor Sanya Kamidi spoke to women who worked under Chad Williams, executive director of the West North Avenue Development Authority (WNADA). As head of the highly influential organization, Williams is tasked with revitalizing the West North Avenue corridor, an area of the city that has long been neglected. However, Hullinger and Kamidi’s reporting uncovers a history of past allegations of harassment.
“In the past decade, Maryland state employee Chad Williams has been the subject of a federal investigation over his handling of sexual harassment complaints at a Nevada housing authority; has himself been accused of sexual harassment at two different workplaces; and was convicted of domestic violence while actively leading an agency in Baltimore,” they write.
In this issue, we bring you two stories that exist only because the people in them decided to speak out.
The two spoke with four women here in Baltimore who detailed the troubling time they spent working under Williams at the WNADA. Several of the women have tried to bring attention to Williams’ behavior but said that their words have largely been ignored.
“Everyone turned a blind eye to this stuff,” one woman, whose real name we are not using due to her fear of retaliation, told us. “What about accountability? What about the lives he ruined?”
Also in this issue, reporter Madeleine O’Neill writes about some of the thousands of people who were sexually abused while they were housed in Maryland juvenile detention centers. A warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse and violence against children.
Kevin Pullen, now 41, says he was just 14 when he was abused. He said what happened to him left him angry and untrusting of people. He spent time as an adult in and out of prison.
New legislation passed in Annapolis this year greatly reduces the amount of money victims like Pullen can receive for the abuse they suffered. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office “neither confirms nor denies the existence of an investigation” into past incidents of abuse in the Department of Juvenile Services system.
Eze Jackson is back with another Best Beats column. This time he reviews music from local artists Chipelo, DJ AAVE, The Bysons, Bashi Rose, and Plant Dad. If you’d like for us to review your new music, just send it to us at music@baltimorebeat.com.
We also have vibrant photos from the grand opening of new dining destination The Mill on North, film critic Dominic Griffin remembers acting legend Gene Hackman by way of his 1998 thriller “Enemy of the State, and as always we leave you with a poem from a participant in the group Writers in Baltimore Schools.
Thank you for reading.