It was April 16 of 2010, International Day of Silence. A day supposed to raise awareness about bullying and harassment due to one's sexual orientation.
In McKee, Kentucky, 18 year old Cheyenne Williams was getting ready to go for a job interview. Three girls from her high school Corinne Schwab, Ashley Sams and another girl who was under 18 at the time offered to drive Cheyenne to her interview. For some reason Cheyenne's interview was postponed, and the three girls drove Cheyenne to Flat Lick Falls, a remote area 60 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky. Cheyenne alleges she was kidnapped and forced to drive with the girls against her will.
Cheyenne had been openly out as a lesbian for years and knew these girls since they were all 12 and in the sixth grade. All of the girls had been friends and never had any record of violence.
Cheyenne alleged, when the car full of teens got to the destination, the three girls hit Cheyenne and tried pushing her off a 50 foot cliff. Cheyenne was able to find a stick to swing at the girls and get them to back off, then she ran. The girls found her again, and got her back into their car. They let her go with the warning she better not say anything to anyone about the incident or she was toast.
Cheyenne thinking "butter" about it, decided to be toast and told her mom. Her mom definitely believed it was a hate crime and took Cheyenne to file a police report. The three girls were arrested.
Amidst the attack, Cheyenne was able to get her cell phone out and take some video footage as proof of what happened. The other girls said Cheyenne was part of what went down that day. It was a hoax, a prank and nothing more and their lesbian friend was a willing participant. Cheyenne had some minor injuries after the incident. She had trouble sleeping after it as well.
The unnamed suspect was acquitted and released. Soon, charges against Ashley and Corinne were also dropped. Cheyenne didn't finish out the rest of the school year but had enough credits to graduate.
The defense for Ashley and Corinne were going to try and paint Cheyenne as someone who told lies for attention.
For me, if Cheyenne was in on the prank, she wouldn't have been hurt at all. Physically or emotionally. And who the fuck were they pranking? If it were the three girls pranking Cheyenne, driving 60 miles to make a prank of attempted homicide is a little extravagant for horseplay and good natured fun as some judges like to call it. I would have loved to see what Cheyenne video taped. 