Brittish Williams Will Report to Prison in West Virginia on January 3

The reality TV star had sought to do her time closer to her family in St. Louis

Dec 18, 2023 at 8:05 am

Brittish Williams leaving federal court after being sentenced to four years in prison. RYAN KRULL

Former reality TV star, Clayton High grad and convicted fraudster Brittish Williams is headed to West Virginia to serve her four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 15 counts of various types of fraud earlier this year.

Williams had requested to serve the time at a facility near St. Louis, where her family resides. But court filings indicate she will instead be locked up more than 600 miles away at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp, just outside Alderson proper, near the banks of the Greenbrier River.

Williams has previously appeared on VH1's Basketball Wives and Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars. She also co-hosted a morning show on St. Louis radio station Hot 104.1, a gig she lost amid her legal troubles.

Williams will hardly be the first person of notoriety to do time at Alderson, a minimum security facility for female inmates. In the late 1940s, jazz singer Billie Holiday had to serve a little less than a year there on a drug charge. Martha Steward did five months in Alderson for her 2004 conviction on charges stemming from an insider trading investigation. A Manson family member and a woman who tried to kill President Gerald Ford have also passed through the facility.

In September 2021, Williams was indicted by federal authorities for not paying taxes and under-reporting her business income, as well as using other people's identities to open bank accounts without their knowledge. Prosecutors say she continued committing acts of fraud even after her indictment, including collecting pandemic-related rent relief under false pretenses. She pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced in October.

At her sentencing, Judge Henry Autrey told Williams he believed she possessed a "fraudster mentality.” On the way out of that hearing, a member of Williams’ entourage rushed a Riverfront Times reporter filming their exit from the federal courthouse downtown. A video of the incident subsequently went viral. Williams was ordered to start serving her sentence December 11.

Earlier this month, a week before what was supposed to be the start of her sentence, Williams' attorney asked the court that she be allowed to delay the start of her sentence by a month so that she could spend the holiday season with her daughter as well as finalize therapy and housing arrangements for her daughter, who will be staying with Williams' mother while Williams is incarcerated.

"Ms. Williams’ five-year-old daughter desperately wants to be able to spend it with her mother," the motion read. "As she is preparing for this transition, it would mean a great deal for them to have that time together."

The judge granted that request and Williams is currently scheduled to start her sentence January 3. In addition to the four years in prison, she must also pay $564,000 in restitution.