THIS DAY IN HISTORY – A media controversy ignites over the case of Tawana Brawley – 1987

Via History.com

Tawana Brawley is found covered with feces and wrapped in garbage bags outside the Pavilion Condominiums in Wappingers Falls, New York. Brawley appeared to have undergone an extremely traumatic experience: parts of her hair were cut off, her pants were slightly burned, and there was a racial slur scrawled on her body. Brawley told authorities that for four days she had been held against her will and repeatedly raped by a gang of white men, one of whom she claimed had a police badge.

The Brawley case became a ’cause celebre’ when controversial attorney C. Vernon Mason, Alton Maddox, and community activist Al Sharpton declared their support for Brawley and alleged that there was a cover-up in the investigation. Unfortunately, Brawley’s story did not hold up to the close scrutiny that followed.

Although she claimed to have been abducted and held for four days, nobody had filed a missing person’s report for the teenager during that time. In fact, there was little concrete evidence that Brawley had been attacked and increasing suspicion that her story was fabricated. According to several witnesses, Brawley had attended a party while she was supposedly missing, and fiber evidence showed that Brawley had likely written the racial slurs on herself. In the face of mounting criticism, Brawley’s advisers began making wild, unfounded accusations, charging that Assistant District Attorney Stephen Pagones had participated in the alleged rape and that Special Prosecutor Robert Abrams was masturbating to the evidentiary photos.

While the controversy surrounding the case became a media circus, Brawley and her family refused to testify or cooperate with the investigation. In October 1988, a Grand Jury dismissed the entire matter. Attorneys Mason and Maddox faced disciplinary proceedings from the New York State Bar for their conduct during the investigation and Pagones filed a libel suit against Mason, Maddox, and Sharpton, which he won in 1998.

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3 Comments
John Galt
John Galt
November 28, 2019 7:30 am

Al Sharpton has always been on the wrong side of right….

Montefrío
Montefrío
November 28, 2019 10:44 am

Al and the whole lot of them should have been tarred and feathered, then run out of the country on a rail, but as we have seen, no such things happened. Now, 32 years later, the carnival atmosphere polluting the USA has become much more poisonous, but even less is done by way of detox. The national dessert after the T-day turkey should be a hearty helping of humble pie. What a sorry spectacle when seen from afar!

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
November 28, 2019 12:40 pm

fakehatecrimes.org

Be sure to send the disbelievers to this well-documented site.