We have periodically discussed the infamous case of Tawana Brawley and Al Sharpton, now a MSNBC host. In 1987, Brawley, a black teenager, falsely accused a prosecutor, a New York police officer and a state trooper of a racist attack and rape. The racial animus was fueled actively by Al Sharpton who sued the case to propelled himself into national fame or infamy. She later recanted and a court ordered damages to be paid by both Brawley and Sharpton — neither of whom paid. Now the falsely accused former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones has tracked down Brawley living in Virginia and working as a nurse. It is 25 years after the sordid affair was in the national spotlight. He is seeking $190,000 in damages against Brawley, now 40. She is now beginning to pay back the amount due to Pagones.
Brawley delivered 10 checks totaling $3,764.61 as the first payments under a court order. The court ordered the money garnisheed from six months of Brawley’s wages as a nurse there. That is more than Sharpton paid.
In 1987, Sharpton made himself a national figure when he organized protests after Brawley was found inside a plastic bag behind an apartment house in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. She was covered with feces and racial epithets smeared on her body and accused various white men, including Steven A. Pagones, a former Dutchess County assistant district attorney. Sharpton attacked Pagones and the other men with Ms. Brawley’s lawyers, Alton H. Maddox Jr. and C. Vernon Mason.
A grand jury eventually found that the account was a hoax and Pagones successfully sued Sharpton, Maddox, Mason and Brawley. Sharpton has never apologized for his role and failed to pay the damages until various businessmen came forward to pay the damages for him in 2001. As opposed to Brawley, he is not hard to find. He is a host on MSNBC every night. Sharpton’s $66,000 damages were paid by friends, including the late O.J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran. Yet, an apology is still not forthcoming from Sharpton.
Brawley has now been hit with a demand for payment in Virginia. However, she will now have to pay interest at 9 percent, so the amount is $431,492. It is the height of irony. Sharpton fuels the hoax and stands next to Brawley throughout her lies as these men are destroyed publicly. He then becomes a close adviser to a president, a television host, and media favorite without paying a dime. She however is now looking at half a million dollars in damages.
Brawley is living under a different name: Tawana Vacenia Thompson Gutierrez in Hopewell, Va. and working as a licensed nurse at The Laurels of Bon Air nursing home. Those wages could now be garnished.
Notably, Pagones is saying that he might waive interest — a huge amount of money — if Brawley “fesses up.” That could be embarrassing for Sharpton and MSNBC.
I must confess that I have little sympathy for Brawley or the others. I feel sorry for 28-year-old Fishkill Police Officer Harry Crist Jr., who committed suicide a week after the false charges were made against him, as well as the rest of these men who were demonized in the relentless press conferences and marches by Sharpton and others.
According to some reports, Brawley refused to appear in the Virginia court with a July filing that stated that the court “inferentially sympathizes with the Confederate States of America, would be contrary to the U.S. Constitution and would amount to a ‘badge of slavery.'” The media reports that Maddox is also back and sharing his extreme views on Facebook. The article says that Maddox wrote that “[t]he common law applies to whites . . . The slave code still applies to blacks.”
Source: NY Post
mespo,
Hardly sporting, but a feint against another manifestly unsporting opponent like Sharpton? I’d call that tactical but ethically grey.
I’ll never understand how race pimps like Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are treated like respectable leaders.
I also don’t understand how Obama can be fooled by the likes of those two.
“I’ll never understand how race pimps like Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are treated like respectable leaders.”
They’re treated in the same way that bigotry pimps like Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann are treated. The only difference is that Sharpton and Jackson are fairly intelligent, while those I mentioned are either moronic or idiotic.
Willing to waive the interest? Haha! Who does he think he’s kidding. He may never collect anything from Brawley and I guarantee he won’t collect anywhere near the amount of the principal, let alone the interest, from Brawley. Not that I blame him for seeking to collect on his judgment, I just think this will largely be a futile effort. Thus, it’s not about the money; it’s about punishing Brawley.
Sharpton’s “talents” were honed being part of James Brown’s entourage. Now..James was a GREAT performer, but he was a baaaad man. Sound like Sharpton’s mentor??? Yes it do.
Gene H:
I think that is probably correct, but picking on the small to get to the mighty doesn’t seem sporting to me.
mespo,
Have you considered that Pagones may only want the publicity as a lever to force the deep pocket Sharpton to pay?
“I must confess that I have little sympathy for Brawley or the others.”
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I hate to think that my entire life would be judged by my actions as an easily manipulated 15-year-old kid. I think a teenager deserves a second chance and need not bear the stigma of something that happened 25 years ago. Call me a progressive or just someone who has raised kids. Also, as a person raised in Hopewell and with a law office in Bon Air, I feel a certain sympathy for Tawana (call it “geographic affinity”) who it seems wanted out of the limelight and into something more productive. It seems she’s turned her life around since her teenage years given her employment but that apparently counts for nothing.
Mr. Pagones seems to want to wallow in this tragedy, and that is his right. However my sympathy reservoir for him is quickly ebbing. The only way the public finds out about a person’s residence and employment is if it’s leaked to the press by somebody with a grudge. The other people so affected –like the residents of The Laurels or Tawana’s immediate family — be damned, or so it seems. There’s plenty of recrimination to go around.
Tell Tawana to give me a call. I’ll refer to a good bankruptcy lawyer and Mr. Pagones can head back on up to New York with his publicity intact and not much else. There is a time for things to end. This one should have ended about 25 years ago.
The government is not trusted by the majority of the populace because they falsely accuse so often (Pew Poll).
Get the woman who made a false accusation when she was a 15 year old and let the war criminals go … yeah that’s the ticket.
Al Sharpton is living proof that one might espouse a noble cause, yet be an ignoble human being. I learned through the years that some people who are perceived as “champions” of a cause I believe in, can be as base at heart as some whose beliefs I oppose. The Reverend has proven himself every much an opportunist as someone like Rush Limbaugh, or Sarah Palin. Beware of those whose pose as your “friends” in equal amounts as those you would see as “enemies”.
Looks like the chickens have come home to roost
“Thou shall not bear false witness . . . for it is expensive.”
Sorry. I think deliberately deceitful claimants should get the stick as much as the convicted criminals. It’s a waste of time, system resources and a deliberate attempt to miscarry justice for profit and/or fame. And in all fairness? What’s up with Pagones not being able to find Sharpton and filing against him?
Magginkat – there’s no statute of limitations on the enforcement of a judgment, and the judgment in this case is 25 years old. She skipped out on her portion of the payment a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t still owe it.
As has been noted, she was only 15 when all of this transpired, which is a significant mitigating factor, IMO.
“She probably has to move now and it is going to be hard for her to find another job if she has lost this one.” -Bron
Yes. And there are bigger fish, but we continue to stomp on the smaller ones.
I think Mr. Pagones should go after Sharpton for the rest of the money and leave Brawly out of it. She was only 15 at the time. He should get her to tell exactly how all of this transpired and ask for an apology.
She probably has to move now and it is going to be hard for her to find another job if she has lost this one.
No statute of limitations on this case? Don’t they take into account that she was a teenager? Seems that this prosecutor has some issues holding a grudge for almost 30 yrs! This woman was only 15 yrs old when this happened. How the sam hill did he get a judgement against her? I hope the former prosecutor loses. He collected money on behalf of Sharpton so why torture this young woman 25 yrs later? He might waive interest if she confesses?? Seems to me that this man should get himself a mental check up and soon.
Interesting takes on this case. Many want to excuse Brawley due to her age. Yes, but she’s had a number of years to make it right and she was counseled by adults. In addition, if you lived in NY during the time this case took place and saw the newscasts and tabs; and were one of the accused, you might not be so eager to let it go.
It is shameful that a national cable network gives a platform to the Rev. Clown. Thankfully, his ratings don’t even register.
In this day and age, it surprises me that it took 25 years to find Brawley. Stupid actions have their consequences.
Petition time on change.org directed towards Rev. Al and MSNBC?
That’s a lot of money! How much does an actual victim of a racial attack receive?
“I feel sorry for 28-year-old Fishkill Police Officer Harry Crist Jr., who committed suicide a week after the false charges were made against him.” -Jonathan Turley
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/05/nyregion/mourning-a-son-tied-to-the-brawley-case.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
Mourning a Son Tied to the Brawley Case
By FRANK BRUNI
Published: April 05, 1998
All these years later, Harry Crist Sr.’s grief should be less keen, the awful circumstances of his son’s death less immediate.
But recent weeks have scraped the tenuous scabs off his suffering, and the mere mention of Harry Crist Jr. has the power to convulse his father’s 6-foot-2 frame with a toddler’s unrestrained sobbing.
Why, he asks, can’t his son rest in peace?
On Dec. 2, 1987, Harry Crist Jr., 28, was found dead in his apartment here, a hole in his head and a .357 Magnum revolver at his side.
His timing, like his final act, proved disastrous. Less than a week earlier, a 15-year-old black girl named Tawana Brawley had said she was raped by several white men, at least one of them a police officer. Because Mr. Crist had worked part time for the Police Department in nearby Fishkill, some people ventured that his death should be examined, and the investigators duly examined it.
Before long, Ms. Brawley’s advisers were identifying him as one of her attackers, with one adviser even suggesting that Mr. Crist had not committed suicide, as the police determined, but had been murdered in the service of a cover-up. When Steven A. Pagones, then a Dutchess County prosecutor, offered an alibi for Mr. Crist, he too was ensnared in the advisers’ web of accusations.