01/27/2006
Wife/Boss Defends Tae Kwon Do Instructor
A Sioux Falls man, whose job is to teach and coach kids, is in jail, charged with inappropriately touching one of his students.
Bud Williams is a Tae Kwan Do instructor at Self Defense America on East 10th Street. Last November, a 13-year-old student was sleeping at his house the night before they were to travel to Minneapolis for a tournament.
She says she woke up to Williams rubbing her breasts outside her sweatshirt.
But Williams’s wife, who is also his boss, has a different story.
KC Estes-Williams owns Self Defense America. She says it’s not unusual for students to spend the night at their home if they were traveling early in the morning for an out-of-town tournament. And it was not unusual for this girl to stay there, because she was friends with their daughter.
But Estes-Williams says the girl made up the story, and the police reports are inaccurate.
The wife of Bud Williams didn’t want to go on camera, but she wanted their side of the story to be clear. “Well, you know, it’s a nightmare,” Estes-Williams says.
She says on the night of November 11th, she and her daughter were already in Minneapolis for a Tae Kwon Do tournament. Bud Williams was home alone, planning to drive a student to the tournament the next morning. Then that student’s mother showed up at his door.
“The mother was supposed to drop her off at 7:00 in the morning, and she showed up at midnight and pretty much said if you don’t let her spend the night, she doesn’t get to go,” Estes-Williams says. “And because she had done it so many times and trusted her and the mother, he said: Okay, go ahead and sleep on the couch.”
At some point during the night, the 13-year-old left Williams’s home and called her mother from a gas station. She told police she woke up to Williams fondling her. And court papers say he admitted it to police. But his wife says that’s not true.
“He said that they’ve twisted things around, that he didn’t say that,” she says. “It’ll come out in court, but for now, everybody is hearing he admitted it. He said he never admitted it.”
Bud Williams told his wife he admitted to tapping the girl on the shoulder to let her know he was leaving the house for a few minutes. When he returned, she was gone. Williams’s wife says he’s never inappropriately touched a student, let alone this one.
“He really cared for this student,” she says. “And she’s been with him for a long time. She had spent the night at the house a number of times, not just before tournaments, but as a friend of our daughter.”
Estes-Williams says all of the parents she’s heard from have been supportive. Self Defense America’s policy has changed, so students can’t sleep over anymore, and she says Bud Williams will likely not return to the school even if found not-guilty.
He is still in jail on a $5,000 cash or surety bond.
http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail5440.cfm?Id=0,45566