Charges dropped against ‘sadistic’ dad who ‘tortured’ his young children

A ‘sadistic’ father who allegedly tortured his young children will not be charged because the children’s claims are not enough to warrant action, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors in Spokane County, Washington released a statement Thursday explaining why they were dropping charges against Taliferro Williams.

He is accused of biting, choking and abandoned his children, aged seven, five, and three.

Williams, 42, was also accused of gouging a child’s eyes and using a Pringles potato chip can to splint a son’s leg, which was found to have a spiral fracture.

A SWAT team responded to Williams’ apartment in July 2016 after they received reports that Williams battered his mother.

When they entered the home, Williams was not there. But officers found his son, then three, with a broken leg and cut on his head, his four-year-old daughter with bruises and cuts, and his 15-month-old son with scarring on his eyes from a possible gouging.

The children were taken to a nurse, who noted the girl had ‘likely been choked, punched in the chest, kicked in the thigh, and bitten on the fingers by Williams.’

‘This type of abuse meets the criteria for child torture,’ the nurse wrote.

Williams was sentenced to 17-months in prison in 2017 for choking, beating, and gouging his mother’s eyes. He had previously been convicted of stabbing a Seattle police officer with surgical clamps.

Charges were never filed relating to the alleged abuse of his children, despite Spokane County Sheriff’ detective Mike Ricketts recommending first-degree and second-degree assault charges.

The boy with the broken leg told a social worker: ‘My daddy was in a bad mood. He punched me in my leg. He was mad at me. He hit my leg several times. I felt sad and I cried,’ according to The Spokesman-Review.

His sister seemed to confirm the claims, telling the social worker: ‘My dad was yelling at (my brother) and he was hitting (my brother’s) leg. He hit him several times with his fist and arm.’

Williams explained the broken leg away as an accident, and said: ‘he fell onto (his son’s) leg when it got stuck on a bed post,’ then ‘acknowledged that he made a splint instead of seeking medical attention.’

Despite the statements from the children and recommendations from both the nurse and detective, Williams’ charges were dropped.

On Thursday, Prosecutor Larry Haskell said it was ‘nearly impossible’ to refute Williams’ claims that he never intentionally hurt the children.

Haskell cited the potential unreliability of the children’s testimony, which was three years old.

A lawsuit has been filed against the state of Washington on behalf of the children, claiming the children’s mother reported Williams’ violent behavior and that he did not comply with domestic violence treatment.