A D.C. Superior Court jury yesterday found Mark Williams, a former writing instructor at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, guilty on eight of ten counts of sexual abuse involving a minor and a secondary education student. The case centered on allegations that Williams engaged in a sexual relationship in 2014 with a then-17-year-old student. Jurors kept working through the remaining two charges after announcing the initial verdicts.
In testimony, the former student told jurors that Williams groomed her with late-night phone calls, explicit emails, and private coaching sessions that escalated into sexual encounters in a locked basement room known as “the studio” and in his car, according to NBC4 Washington. Prosecutors introduced thousands of messages to help anchor a timeline, including an April 29, 2014 email shown in court that read in part, “sorry for freaking you out, not only did i touch you, but (sorry, i tasted you).” Williams told jurors he did not send that email and claimed some exchanges were simply writing exercises. The judge has not yet scheduled sentencing, according to the outlet.
Williams once led Ellington’s Literary Media and Communications Department. He resigned in early 2019 while the school was examining prior complaints and later entered a not-guilty plea in 2024. He was taken into custody in November 2023 after U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped him at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport as he tried to leave the country, The Washington Post reported. Earlier complaints about his conduct were made to school administrators and police in 2004 and 2018, according to court records and news accounts cited in the case.
The guilty verdict has renewed questions about how Duke Ellington and D.C. Public Schools handled those earlier warnings. A federal civil lawsuit filed in 2022 lays out allegations dating back to the early 2000s, and court filings indicate that at one point administrators put Williams on leave but did not remove him from classroom duties, according to documents reviewed on Justia. The Duke Ellington School of the Arts has since released a public letter saying it reviewed its procedures and strengthened safeguards for students.
What He Faces in Sentencing
The counts on which Williams was convicted fall under D.C. laws covering sexual abuse of a student in secondary education. Under those statutes, first-degree offenses of that kind can bring prison terms of up to 10 years. D.C. official code §22-3009.03 sets a maximum sentence of 10 years for sexual acts by a school authority, and related sections of the code allow even steeper penalties for certain first-degree sexual abuse offenses. Sentencing will follow preparation of pre-sentencing reports and any statements from the victim.
The former student testified that she saw Williams as a “father figure” and said she tried to end the encounters. “I don’t think you can be almost 30 years older than your student and have a consensual relationship with them,” she told the jury, according to NBC4 Washington. Williams’ attorney did not immediately comment after the verdict, and the school said it had cooperated with law enforcement inquiries, the outlet reported.
Prosecutors are expected to return to court to resolve the two outstanding counts and set a date for sentencing. In the meantime, current students, alumni, and advocates say the case has highlighted the need for stronger reporting rules and better documentation at selective public schools, and they hope the outcome pushes institutions to rethink one-on-one mentoring and after-hours coaching practices that can leave students vulnerable.
