UPDATE: Thursday October, 22 7:30 p.m.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The caregiver of a black Ohio woman who recanted 2007 allegations of being tortured says the woman has mental issues and has more than once changed her version of what happened.

Valencia Daniels of Columbus said Thursday that Megan Williams "goes back and forth, back and forth" about the allegations of being beaten, raped and tortured by a group of white people in West Virginia.

Daniels says the 22-year-old Williams sometimes says the story is true and other times says some of it didn't happen. Seven people pleaded guilty to charges in the case.

On Wednesday, an attorney for Williams held a news conference to say Williams was recanting the whole story.

Daniels says she tried to talk Williams out of recanting, but Williams insisted. Daniels had approached media outlets with Williams in recent months, saying the truth needed to come out.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Her attorney, Byron Potts, says Williams received death threats after the story broke that she lied about being kidnapped and attacked. Potts says Williams feared for her life and did not want to show her face.

Potts did say that Williams is standing by her story. He says she wanted to finally "stop living a lie."

According to Potts, the racial attacks that drew national attention, never happened. He says Williams lied about the attack to get back at her boyfriend, Bobby Brewster, who was charged in the crime.

Potts says Williams was beat up by Brewster in a separate incident and that's how she received the bruises. He says Williams told him that she stabbed herself. In 2007, Williams told investigators she was stabbed and called a racial slur.

But the question was raised, if she lied then, what keeps her from lying now? Potts says she has nothing to gain from lying.

Williams gained national attention in 2007, and the former prosecutor in the case says she is trying to get back in the spotlight. Potts says if she wanted to do that, she would have spoken at the news conference.

All six people who were charged in the attack pleaded guilty and gave detailed confessions.

Brian Abraham, the former Logan County prosecutor, says he based the case on those confessions and the evidence.

The news conference was held in Columbus, Ohio because Williams now lives there with a woman she met at one of her rallies.

The law office of Columbus, Ohio, attorney Byron L. Potts says Megan Williams will attend a Wednesday news conference there during which Potts or Williams will discuss her claim that she lied about being assaulted by a gang of whites in Logan County.

Seven people pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes in that case. All but one were sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

But Brian Abraham, the former Logan County prosecutor who oversaw those cases, called Williams' new claim absurd.

Abraham told The Associated Press the seven were convicted on physical evidence and their own statements.

The Charleston Gazette reported that Megan Williams plans a Wednesday news conference in Columbus, Ohio, that she lied about the 2007 incident in which she said she was assaulted by a group of whites in Logan County.

Seven people were convicted in that case. National and local advocates wanted hate crimes charges filed, since Williams is black.

But Brian Abraham, the former Logan County prosecutor who oversaw those cases, dismissed the news conference as a publicity stunt.

Abraham says the seven, who all pleaded guilty, were convicted on physical evidence and their own statements, not statements from Williams.

Statement from Rev. Al Sharpton and National Action Network Regarding Megan Williams

Rev. Sharpton was contacted by Attorneys for Megan Williams yesterday who apologized to him on behalf of Ms. Williams for accepting a Christmas gift from him under false pretenses.

Three-and-a-half months after Ms. Williams made her claim and after arrests and charges had been made, Reverend Sharpton went to West Virginia at the request of her supporters because he was advised that she was going through difficult times and was going to testify and that she had no resources for Christmas.

Reverend Sharpton went to West Virginia and stated that hate crimes should be investigated and he gave her $1000 from his pocket of his personal money. Reverend Sharpton did not participate in any marches and rallies but did follow it on his radio show as most media did.

According to Reverend Sharpton: “When I received the call yesterday I urged her attorneys to go public if in fact, she was recanting, and I sent the prosecutors a letter who the attorney claimed was ignoring him. I urged him not to ignore the claims if in fact Ms. Williams is recanting. And despite the extensive records of the accused, they should then not be incarcerated.

If they are being held under false information and she misled authorities and if the authorities went solely on her testimony, then they should be released. If there are other circumstances around the recanting we should know what they are. We did not handle this case nor were we involved in the investigation or rallies and we have no knowledge other than what was in the public media. Our involvement surrounded a call for hate crime investigations and we did not know the truths or non truths of the investigation.”

Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network