Tawana Glenda Brawley Tawana Vicenia Brawley (different source) (born December 15, 1971 or b. 1972) (different source) is an African-American woman from Wappingers Falls, New York, who became famous in 1987-1988 for wrongly accusing four white men of raping her. The accusations received wide national attention because of his age (15), the accused (including police and prosecutors), and the country where Brawley was found after the alleged rape. She was found in a garbage bag, with racial insults written on her body and covered with dirt. Brawley advisors, Al Sharpton, Alton H. Maddox, and C. Vernon Mason also helped the case to become famous.
After hearing the evidence, the grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley was not a victim of sexual violence and that he himself might have created the appearance of such an attack. New York prosecutors accused of Brawley as one of his alleged assailants sued Brawley and his three advisers for defamation. Brawley initially received great support from the African-American community. Some suggest that Brawley was victimized by a biased report that adhered to racial stereotypes. Mainstream media coverage invites harsh criticism from the African-American press and many black leaders who believe in teenagers and stories. Conclusions grand jury lowered support for Brawley and his advisers. The Brawley family argues that the allegations are true.
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On November 28, 1987, Tawana Brawley, who had been missing for four days from her home in Wappers Falls, New York, was found to be unconscious and unresponsive, lying in a garbage bag a few feet from an apartment where she had lived. His clothes were torn and burned, his body covered with dirt. He was taken to the emergency room, where the words "KKK", "negro", and "bitch" were found written on his body with charcoal.
A detective from the Sheriff Helpers' Bureau, among others, was called in to interview Brawley, but he remained unresponsive. The family asked for a black officer, which could be provided by the police department. Brawley, who is described as having a "very outer space" look on his face, communicates with this officer with a nod of his head, shrugs, and written notes. The interview lasted 20 minutes, in which he only uttered one word: "neon". However, through gestures and writings, he indicated that he had been repeatedly raped in a forest area by three white men, at least one of whom, he said, was a police officer. Tools of sexual violence were provided, and the police began to make a case. Brawley did not give a name or description of his attacker. He then told the others that there was no rape, just another type of sexual harassment. The forensic test found no evidence that any sexual violence has occurred. There is no evidence of exposure to the elements, which would be expected of victims held for several days in the forest when the temperature falls below freezing at night.
Maps Tawana Brawley rape allegations
Public response
The public response to Brawley's story was at first mostly sympathetic. Bill Cosby offered a $ 25,000 reward for information on the case, while Don King promised $ 100,000 for Brawley education. In December 1987, more than a thousand people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, marched through the streets of Newburgh, New York, to support Brawley.
Brawley's claim in this case made headlines across the country. A public rally was held condemning the incident. When civil rights activist Al Sharpton, with lawyers Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason, began dealing with Brawley publicity, the case quickly became highly controversial. Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason produce a national media sensation. All three said that officials reached the state government trying to cover up the defendants in the case because they were white. They further affirmed that the Ku Klux Klan, the Irish Republican Army and the Mafia cooperate with the US government in alleged cover-up. Harry Crist Jr., a police officer who committed suicide shortly after the period when Brawley was allegedly captured, became a suspect in the case. Steven Pagones, Assistant District Attorney in Dutchess County, New York, attempted to build an alibi for Crist, stating that he had been with Crist during that time period. Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason later said that Crist and Pagones were two of the rapists. They also accuse the Pagones of being a racist. The New York Times reported, based on his suicide note, that Crist committed suicide because his girlfriend ended their relationship shortly before his death, and because he was angry that he could not become state police.
The mainstream media coverage invited severe criticism from the press and African-American leaders for their treatment of the teenager. They cited the leaking and publication of photographs taken from him in the hospital and the disclosure of his name even though he was a minor. In addition, critics fear that Brawley had been abandoned in his mother's custody, stepfather and counsel, rather than being granted state protection. In the opinion section at The New York Times, Martha Miles and Richard L. Madden wrote
State law provides that if a child appears to be sexually harassed, the Childcare Services Agency should take the child's jurisdiction and custody. Now, Tawana Brawley was 15 years old at the time of the incident. If it's been done... from the beginning, the agency will give psychiatric attention and save evidence of rape...
Former Sharpton assistant Perry McKinnon said that Sharpton, Maddox and Mason did not care about Brawley and used the case to "no [e] over the city," because he had heard Sharpton say that the case could make it and the other two Brawley advisers "nigger largest in New York ". In June 1988, at the height of the controversy surrounding the case, a poll showed a 34 percentage point gap between blacks (51%) and white (85%) on the question of whether Brawley was lying.
Grand jury hearing
Under the authority of New York Attorney General Robert Abrams, a grand jury was summoned to hear evidence. On October 6, 1988, the grand jury released a 170 page report concluding that Brawley had not been kidnapped, assaulted, raped and sodomized, as Brawley and his counselor said. The report further concludes that "public accusations that are not broken down against the assistant Dutch County Assistant County Steven Pagones" are wrong and have no basis in fact. Before issuing the report, the grand jury heard from 180 witnesses, saw 250 exhibits and recorded more than 6,000 pages of testimony.
In the decision, the grand jury noted many problems with Brawley's story. Among these are the results of the rape kits not showing sexual violence. Additionally, despite saying he had been kept outdoors for days, Brawley did not suffer from hypothermia, was nourishing enough, and seemed to have brushed his teeth recently. Although his clothes were scorched, there were no burns on his body. Even though the shoes he wears are cut off, Brawley does not have any injuries to his legs. The racial titles he wrote upside down, causing the suspicion that Brawley had written those words. The testimony of his schoolmates showed he attended a local party at the time of his abduction. A witness claimed to have watched Brawley's ascent into a garbage bag. The dirt on his body was identified as coming from his neighbor's dog. Brawley never testified.
Possible motives
Most of the grand jury evidence suggests the possibility of Brawley's motive for falsifying the incident: trying to avoid the harsh penalty from his mother and stepfather, Ralph King. Witnesses testified that Glenda Brawley had previously beaten his daughter for running away and spending the night with the boys. The king has a history of violence that included stabbing his first wife 14 times, then shot and killed him. There is plenty of evidence that the King can and will vigorously attack Brawley: when Brawley was arrested on charges of shoplifting in May before, the King tried to beat him for offense while in the police station. Witnesses also described the King talking about his step daughter in a sexual way. On the day he was declared void, Brawley had skipped school to visit his girlfriend, Todd Buxton, who was serving a six-month jail term. When Buxton's mother (with whom he visited Buxton in prison) urged him to go home before he got into trouble, Brawley told him, "I'm in trouble." He described how angry the King was over the previous incident that made him late.
There is evidence that both mother and King Brawley participate consciously in the deception. Neighbors told the Grand Jury that in February they heard Glenda Brawley say to the King, "You should not take the money because once it's out, they'll find out the truth." Other neighbors heard Mrs. Brawley said, "They know we're lying and they'll find out and come and take us."
In April 1989, New York Newsday published a claim by Brawley's boyfriend, Daryl Rodriguez, that he had told him that the story was made, with help from his mother, to prevent the anger of his stepfather.. Writing about the case in a 2004 book about the perception of racial violence, sociologist Jonathan Markovitz concluded "it makes sense to state that Brawley's fears and the kind of suffering he had to go through would be absolutely shocking if they were enough to force him to cut his hair, cover his body with dirt and crawling into a garbage bag. "
Aftermath
This case highlights the distrust of legal institutions in the black community. Lawyer Patricia J. Williams wrote in 1991 that the teenager "has been the victim of an unspeakable crime, no matter how he got there, no matter who did it to him - and even if he did it for himself. These comments give rise to controversy as well; Sue Sherry responds to Williams in his book Beyond All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Law, writes "Radical multiculturalists seem unable or unwilling to distinguish between Brawley's fantasy rape and the original woman. facts and fictions minimize real suffering by implying that it is no worse than the imagined or self-inflicted suffering. "On May 21, 1990, Alton H. Maddox was indefinitely suspended by the State Supreme Court Appeals Division in Brooklyn after failing to appear at before a disciplinary hearing to answer the allegations about his behavior in Brawley's case.
In 1998, Pagones was awarded $ 345,000 through a lawsuit for defamation of the characters he brought against Sharpton, Maddox and Mason; Pagones initially sought $ 395 million. The jury finds Sharpton responsible for making seven libelous statements about Pagones, Maddox for two and Mason for one. The jury encountered a dead end on four of the 22 alleged Pagones statements, and it found eight unsavory statements. In later interviews, Pagones said the turmoil caused by Brawley's allegations and his counselor had sacrificed his first marriage and much personal sadness.
Pagones also sued Brawley. He failed because it did not appear in the trial, and the judge ordered him to pay for Pagones damage of $ 185,000. The $ 65,000 ruling imposed on Al Sharpton was paid to him in 2001 by supporters, including lawyer Johnnie Cochran and businessman Earl G. Graves, Jr. In December 2012, New York Post reported that Maddox had paid the $ 97,000 judgment and Mason made a payment of the $ 188,000 he spends. Brawley reportedly has not made any payments. The next month the court ordered his pay to be given a garnish to pay the Pagones.
In a 1997 appearance, Brawley maintained that he did not create a story; he still has supporters. In November 2007, Brawley's stepfather and mother, in the 20th anniversary feature for the New York Daily News, stated that the attack took place. "How can we make this and bring down the state of New York? We're just ordinary people," Glenda Brawley said. "They said they had asked New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Governor Eliot Spitzer to reopen the case and said Brawley would speak at every legal process. In 2013, Brawley lives in Virginia, with a new name.
In popular culture
- The 1989 Spike Lee Movie Do It Right shows a graffiti shot that says "Tawana is telling the truth." In the 2014 Rolling Stone interview, Lee said he was not sure Brawley's story was true.
- Brawley appeared with Sharpton in the music video for "Fight the Power" Public Enemy, directed and produced by Lee.
- 1990 Legal & amp; The message "Out of the Half-Light" episode is a fictional re-case of the Brawley case. This case is also covered in 2014 Law & amp; Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Criminal Stories".
- Brawley is referred by Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes in the song "His Story" from her debut album TLC Oooooohoh... At TLC Tip (1992).
See also
- "Rape on Campus"
- Duke lacrosse casing
- False accusation of rape
References
External links
- Chin, Pat (December 12, 1997). "Brawley Tawana Speaks". The World Workers Party . Retrieved January 14, 2006 . (another view of Brawley's appearance in Brooklyn in 1997)
- Pagones v. Maddox, et al. - Decision of the Supreme Court of New York, County of Duchess
- Topic of Tawana Brawley, The New York Times
- "The Tawana Brawley Story", New York Times video
- Al Sharpton 1988 Poughkeepsie march photograph by photographer/filmmaker Clay Walker
- Note book interview with M.A. Farber on Anger: The Story Behind Brawley Hoax's Tawana, September 16, 1990.
- Grand Jury Tawana Brawley Report
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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