William Kennedy Smith was tried and found not guilty of two accusations raised against him by two different women. In one of the cases, Roy Black, a Miami-based criminal defense lawyer, represented Smith during the trial.
Read on to learn about the sexual accusation leveled against William by twenty-nine-year-old Patricia Bowan. Who equals to be William Smith’s ex-girlfriend.
Sexual Allegation
On March 29, 1991, a Friday, the incident started on the evening of Good Friday. Smith, who was thirty years old then, was with his uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, and his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy at a pub in Palm Beach, Florida called Au pub.
At the bar, Patricia Bowman, a 29-year-old woman, and another young lady were introduced to Smith. In an affidavit, investigating police officers who spoke with Bowman claimed that Smith requested a lift back to the Kennedy family’s neighboring home.
The two then took a stroll along the sand. Williams took off his clothes and went for the water, and that made Patricia uncomfortable, according to Linda Mark in a December 1991 article in People Weekly.
Bowman reported that Smith then assaulted her with force and raped her.
Around four in the morning, she called two friends, who arrived to pick her up from the Kennedy compound.
After bringing her to their home, they dropped her off at a rape crisis center that Bowman had phoned. Shortly after the incident, she reported it to the police, who transported her to the hospital for a rape kit examination.
There, the rape kit discovered sperm in her vagina, along with bruises and accounts of severe pain. Smith admitted to having consensual sex with Bowman in his testimony throughout the trial.
Three willing women, a law student and a medical student among them, testified that Smith had sexually assaulted them in the 1980s, incidents that they did not report to the police.
However, their testimony was excluded because the reported pattern of behavior did not bear enough similarities to the Bowman case.
Bowman’s face was disguised during her testimony, but she eventually decided to reveal her identity. Smith was found not guilty of any crimes. Less than 75 minutes were needed for the jury to return a not guilty judgment.
2004 Court Litigation
A former worker at the Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR) filed a lawsuit against Smith in 2004, alleging that he had sexually abused her in 1999.
Smith said that his personal and family history had opened him up to be vulnerable to certain charges and allegations. Therefore, he refuted her accusations, calling them “outrageous.” Later on, Smith left the CIR.
Later, two separate federal sexual harassment charges against Smith by former CIR employees were confirmed by an organization spokesman as “settled amicably.”
The employee’s claim was dismissed by the court on January 5, 2005.
Is Williams Kennedy Married?
He married Anne Henry, a consultant on art fundraising on May 12, 2011, at Tilghman Island, Maryland. They are parents to two children, India (born in 2012) and Stephen (born in 2013).