by P.D. Lesko
In an email sent the day his wife was allegedly attacked by a knife-wielding man in downtown Ann Arbor, William Farah told County Prosecutor Eli Savit, “LOCK HIM UP. Don’t be soft on him. None of this ‘cashless bond’ nonsense.” On Oct. 27 Sava Farah’s alleged assailant, 28-year-old Javon Trevail Williams, was arraigned before Judge Miriam A. Perry in Ann Arbor’s 15th District Court and stood mute. Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit has charged Williams with six felonies:
- Assault with intent to do great bodily harm/strangulation
- Carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent
- Wearing body armor during the commission of a violent crime
- Felonious assault
- Malicious destruction of personal property valued at between $1,000-$20,000
- Assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest
Judge Perry set Williams’s bail at $150,000 cash.
William Farah, in one of his emails to the Mayor, City Council and Eli Savit wrote, “What a great time to be a criminal.”
On Jan. 4, 2021 County Prosecutor Savit made national news when he announced that he would be scrapping cash bail, the first county prosecutor in Michigan to do so.
In his 20-page 2021 directive Savit wrote: “Under a cash bail system, poorer people — even those who are accused of relatively minor crimes — are forced to sit in jail for days, weeks, or years. At the same time, cash bail allows wealthier people who are accused of serious crimes to go free pending trial.”
Savit’s directive orders assistant prosecuting attorneys to make case-by-case assessments to determine the defendant’s flight disk and dangerousness in order to ensure public safety. Eliminating cash bail was one of Savit’s campaign promises.
Since 2016, Williams has avoided felony charges and been offered the opportunity to avoid jail time through plea deals. In sentencing for one assault case, Judge Karen Valvo sentenced Williams to five days of community service in lieu of jail.
William Farah, after Javon Williams allegedly tried to stab Sava Farah, said in an email to Savit, “I don’t want to see plea deals. NOTHING. We will come to court to testify. We will be in his face. When we’re running around town yesterday trying to find him, Sava herself is the one that stopped him with a baseball bat and held him until police came, we will do what we need to do to protect ourselves.”
Williams, who has a record of assaults/assaults and battery going back to 2015, last appeared before Judge Perry in May 2021 on a charge of larceny–less than $200. Williams pled not guilty and Perry released him on a PR bond. On July 7, 2021 court records show Prosecutor Savit dropped the charge.
The victim in that case posted a photo that allegedly shows Javon Williams stealing a bicycle from the victim’s carport. The victim also made multiple public comments in a local Ann Arbor politics group on Facebook: “The local prosecutor’s office did not seem interested in my opinions about how Javon should be handled. Instead, they put him back on the streets, knowing that his behavior would only accelerate to a prison sentence with a long list of charges, thus putting him away in the prison pipeline, and at the same time, endangering the the lives of many victims of his violence. This is a tremendous failure for Jevon and the citizens of our city. I worked in a 1500 bed NY jail infirmary, and a small correctional facility. These places are loaded with young men like Javon, who could have been helped with mental health services. There is nothing more tragic than seeing wasted potential behind bars, and the murder victim that could have been saved by psychological help and medication.”
The victim also said: “[T]here is a serious system failure….The police and prosecutors office have been very aware of this [Javon Williams] for years. I spoke to an assault and stalking victim of Javon’s and they confirmed all of this information. There was no system in place to avoid this dangerous situation. The police just casually shrugged when they told me about Javon and how he’d stolen my bike to commit a violent crime. They actually did not arrest him that day; they drove him back downtown to The Delonis Center. They just did not give a crap.”
Just a month prior to the larceny arraignment, in April of 2021 Williams was arraigned on a Nov. 2020 charge of misdemeanor assault or assault and battery. Magistrate Tamara Garwood set bond at $5,000. In April of 2022, Judge Perry signed a pre-trial release order (the County Jail houses inmates for a maximum of one year, as a rule). In July of 2022, with Judge Perry presiding, a jury found Williams not guilty of the charges.
Court records show between 2016 and 2022, Williams was put on probation three times for charges ranging from a weapons charge, to multiple assault and battery charges. He was on probation when he allegedly attacked Sava Farah. Unlike the felony charges brought related to the Oct. 2022 attempted stabbing incident, on July 1, 2016 Williams was charged with having a weapon (a gun) in public, discharging a weapon in public, brandishing a firearm and resisting arrest. By Jan. 2017, Judge Karen Valvo sentenced Williams on a misdemeanor ordinance charge. He was given probation, and ordered to pay $600 in court costs.
Perry is currently running for election to the 15th District seat she occupies, having been appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy on the Court. Williams has not posted bond and is currently held in the Washtenaw County jail. A probable cause conference is scheduled for Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. If probable cause is established, Williams will be bound over for trial in the 22nd District Trial Court. Trial Court Judge Darlene O’Brien will hear the case.
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