Christian Bradley Williams #

Introduction #

Christian Bradley Williams is a 54-year-old yachtsman from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, who was charged with raping a 22-year-old employee aboard his yacht, the Chimera, while it was moored in Nantucket Harbor this summer. He was arraigned Friday in Nantucket District Court on three counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 years or older, and not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf. The case comes from a Nantucket police report obtained by the Nantucket Current and gained national attention when the New York Post recounted the allegations. According to the Post, Williams has ties to the US Navy and previously served as commander of the USS Springfield submarine, a background reflected in Facebook photos and posts.

Background Information #

Williams owned the Chimera, a yacht out of Coral Gables, Florida, that was moored in Nantucket Harbor beginning June 25. He lived aboard for the summer with his wife, their 2-year-old son and the boy’s 19-year-old nanny. The alleged victim, a 22-year-old woman who arrived on the island on June 1, had been hired as a deckhand through the Nantucket Launch Company, whose owner, Max Shapiro, arranged for her to live aboard the vessel in exchange for basic duties such as running the generator, doing laundry and retrieving water. On August 9, Williams’ wife, son and nanny left the boat and returned to Florida for the start of the child’s preschool, while Williams planned to stay on the yacht in Nantucket Harbor through September 15 — leaving him and the employee alone aboard.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from the Nantucket police report obtained by the Nantucket Current, and from court filings reported by the New York Post, the Nantucket Current, The Inquirer and Mirror and The Boston Globe. Williams has been criminally charged but not tried; the charges are not convictions and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. He pleaded not guilty, and his attorney said, “We completely and utterly deny the allegations.”

According to the police report, the woman returned to the Chimera around 4:15 p.m. on August 9 and found Williams drinking. He invited her to dinner and told her “to put on a dress. I want to go somewhere nice”; when she came out in the dress he said, “Wow, you look amazing,” which she told police was the moment she first sensed something was wrong. During the evening at Cru restaurant on Straight Wharf, he reportedly told her he didn’t want his wife knowing they were out together, called her “my sugar mommy tonight,” said he had always “wanted to make a move on” his wife’s friend, and remarked that her boyfriend — who had left the island for the summer — was “stupid for not locking you down, you’re so beautiful.” The woman put the roughly $250 dinner on her own card at Williams’ request, and after they left he withdrew $500 from an ATM and handed it to her, the report states.

Back on the boat around 8:30 p.m., Williams became “very persistent” that she have one more drink with him and made each of them a rum drink, according to the report. The woman — who said the drink was only her third alcoholic beverage of the day — told police her vision started going black and she became very dizzy. Williams asked if he could kiss her and she said no, she was going to bed; the next thing she remembered was Williams on top of her with his full body weight as she said, “I’m your employee, please get off of me.” She recalled him holding her arms and hands down before picking her up and saying, “I’m going to take you to bed now.” She told police she passed out immediately and woke hours later naked in Williams’ bed, with him nude beside her, feeling soreness and detecting physical evidence of a sexual assault.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The woman quit her job that day, walked off the dock crying and called her father, telling him, per the report, “something bad just happened on the boat. I was assaulted. I need you to pick me up.” She went to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, where a sexual assault examination was completed around 10 a.m.; on September 1 the Massachusetts State Police forensics laboratory returned the exam “positive for male DNA,” the report states. Williams was later located and placed under arrest, and the Nantucket Current reported he was charged with three counts of rape and indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14. At his arraignment he was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail or $500,000 surety at the Barnstable County House of Corrections.

Two denials entered the record. Shapiro disputed the woman’s account of their dock conversation, telling the Post, “The recap of the conversation on the dock is not at all accurate,” and that his company was “supporting the investigation in every way possible.” And Williams’ attorney, Thomas A. Kokonowski, said: “We completely and utterly deny the allegations, as is reflected in his not guilty plea,” adding at a Tuesday hearing that he expected his client to post bail and that Williams’ wife was bringing the money to Nantucket. The Post reported that the Nantucket Police Department and Williams did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Current Status #

Williams’ case is pending in Nantucket District Court. The Boston Globe reported that records show he was released on $50,000 bail, matching his attorney’s expectation that the cash bail would be posted the Tuesday after his Friday arraignment. He has pleaded not guilty to all five charges, and the police-report account that underpins the charges — including the positive male-DNA finding reported on September 1 — has so far been aired only in court filings and press reporting, not tested at trial. The Nantucket Launch Company says it is cooperating with what Shapiro described as an active police investigation.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The arrest ended Williams’ quiet summer on Nantucket Harbor and turned the former submarine commander into a nationally covered criminal defendant, with the Post’s framing of a “Florida sicko” arrest on a tony Massachusetts island drawing wide attention to the case. The allegations have also pulled his employer circle into the story: the Nantucket Launch Company, which placed the 22-year-old deckhand aboard his boat, now publicly defends its owner’s conduct while supporting the prosecution’s underlying investigation. Whatever the outcome, Williams — who pleaded not guilty and whose defense calls the allegations utterly denied — faces the charges from behind a released-on-bail routine of court appearances in Nantucket rather than the summer cruising life the Chimera was built for.