Bill Cosby Tawana Brawley This Is the Type of Thing That Must Never Happen Again

African-American woman who made accusations of rape in 1987 in New York, United states

Tawana Vicenia Brawley ^[ane] (built-in December 15, 1971)^{[1] [2]} is an African-American woman who accused 4 white men of kidnapping and raping her over a four-twenty-four hours menstruum in November 1987 when she was fifteen years old.

On November 28, 1987, Brawley was found in a trash bag after having been missing for iv days from her home in Wappingers Falls, New York. She had racial slurs written on her torso and was covered in carrion. Brawley accused four white men of having raped her. The charges received widespread national attending in part because of the bloodcurdling condition in which she had been left, her immature age (fifteen), and the professional status of the persons she accused of the crime (including police officers and a prosecuting chaser). Brawley's advisers—Al Sharpton, Alton H. Maddox, and C. Vernon Stonemason—likewise helped in bringing the case to national prominence.^[3]

Subsequently hearing prove, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had non been the victim of a forcible sexual assail, and that she herself may take created the advent of such an attack.^{[ii] [4]} Steven Pagones, the New York prosecutor whom Brawley had accused every bit beingness i of her assailants, later successfully sued Brawley, and her iii advisers, for defamation.^[iv]

Brawley had initially received considerable support from the African-American customs.^[5] Some academics accept suggested that Brawley was victimized by biased reporting that had credited racial stereotypes.^{[6] [7]} The mainstream media's coverage drew heated criticism from the African-American press, and from many black leaders who professed to believe the teenager and her narrative.^[8] The chiliad jury's conclusions decreased support for Brawley and her advisers; Brawley's family unit have continued to assert that the allegations were true.

Origins of the case [edit]

On November 28, 1987, Tawana Brawley, who had been missing for four days from her home in Wappingers Falls, New York, was found seemingly unconscious and unresponsive, lying in a garbage bag several feet from an flat where she had once lived. Her clothing was torn and burned, her body smeared with feces. She was taken to the emergency room, where the words "KKK", "nigger", and "bowwow" were discovered written on her torso with charcoal.^[2]

A detective from the sheriff'southward juvenile aid bureau, amidst others, was summoned to interview Brawley, but she remained unresponsive. The family unit requested a black officeholder, which the constabulary department was able to provide. Brawley, described as having an "extremely spacey" look on her confront, communicated with this officer with nods of the head, shrugs of the shoulder, and written notes. The interview lasted 20 minutes, during which she uttered simply one word: "neon". Through gestures and writing, however, she indicated she had been raped repeatedly in a wooded area by 6 white men, at least one of whom, she said, was a police officer.^[9]

A sexual assault kit was administered, and police began building a case. Brawley provided no names or descriptions of her assailants. She subsequently told others that there had been no rape, merely other kinds of sexual abuse. Forensic tests constitute no testify that a sexual set on of whatsoever kind had occurred. There was no show of exposure to elements, which would have been expected in a victim held for several days in the woods at a fourth dimension when the temperature dropped below freezing at night.^[9]

Public response [edit]

Al Sharpton (pictured in 2015) helped handle Brawley'due south publicity.

The initial public response to Brawley's story was more often than not sympathetic. Pecker Cosby offered a $25,000 reward for information on the example, while Don Male monarch pledged $100,000 toward Brawley's pedagogy.^[10] In December 1987, more chiliad people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, marched through the streets of Newburgh, New York, in support of Brawley.^[eleven]

Brawley'southward claims in the example captured headlines across the country. Public rallies were held denouncing the incident. When civil rights activist Al Sharpton, with attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Stonemason, began handling Brawley's publicity, the example speedily became highly controversial.^[12] Sharpton, Maddox, and Bricklayer generated a national media awareness. The three said that officials all the way up to the state authorities were trying to cover upwardly defendants in the example because they were white.^[13] They further suggested that the Ku Klux Klan, the Irish Republican Army, and the Mafia had conspired with the U.S. government in the alleged cover up.^[14]

Harry Crist Jr., a police force officer who committed suicide before long later on the menstruum when Brawley was allegedly held captive, became a doubtable in the case. Steven Pagones, an assistant district chaser in Dutchess County, New York, attempted to found an alibi for Crist, stating that he had been with Crist during that menses of time. Sharpton, Maddox, and Bricklayer so said that Crist and Pagones were two of the rapists. They besides accused Pagones of existence a racist.^{[13] [15]} Based on Crist'south suicide note, The New York Times reported that he killed himself because his girlfriend ended their relationship presently earlier his decease, and because he was upset that he was unable to become a country trooper.^[16]

The mainstream media'due south coverage drew heated criticism from the African-American press and leaders for its treatment of the teenager.^{[17] [18] [19]} They cited the leaking and publication of photos taken of her at the infirmary, and the revelation of her name despite her beingness underage.^[twenty] In addition, critics were concerned that Brawley had been left in the custody of her female parent, stepfather, and advisers, rather than being given protection past the state. In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Martha Miles and Richard L. Madden wrote:^[21]

State law provides that if a child appears to have been sexually molested, then the Child Protective Services Agency is supposed to take jurisdiction and custody of that child. Now, Tawana Brawley was 15 at the time of the incident. If that had been done... early on, the agency would have given her psychiatric attention and preserved evidence of rape...

Sharpton's former aide, Perry McKinnon, said that Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason were unconcerned with Brawley, and were using the case to "tak[e] over the boondocks," as he had heard Sharpton say that the instance could make him and Brawley'south other two directorate "the biggest niggers in New York."^[14] In June 1988, at the elevation of the controversy surrounding the instance, a poll showed a gap of 34 percentage points between blacks (51%) and whites (85%) on the question of whether Brawley was lying.^[12]

G jury hearings [edit]

Under the potency of New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams, a grand jury was called to hear evidence. On Oct vi, 1988, the chiliad jury released its 170-page report that concluded Brawley had not been abducted, assaulted, raped, or sodomized, equally Brawley and her directorate said. The written report farther ended that the "unsworn public allegations against Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones" were false and had no basis in fact. Before issuing the study, the grand jury heard from 180 witnesses, saw 250 exhibits, and recorded more 6,000 pages of testimony.^[4]

In the decision, the grand jury noted many bug with Brawley's story. Amid these were that the rape kit results did not betoken sexual assault. Additionally, despite saying she had been held captive outdoors for days, Brawley was not suffering from hypothermia, was well-nourished, and appeared to take brushed her teeth recently. Despite her clothing being charred, in that location were no burns on her body. Although a shoe she was wearing was cut through, Brawley had no injuries to her foot. The racial epithets written on her were upside down, which led to suspicion that Brawley had written the words. Testimony from her schoolmates indicated she had attended a local party during the time of her supposed abduction. Ane witness claimed to have observed Brawley's climbing into the garbage handbag.^[22] The feces on her torso were identified as coming from her neighbour's dog.^[23] Brawley never testified, despite a subpoena ordering her to practice and then.^{[24] [25]}

On June 6, 1988, Tawana's mother, Glenda Brawley, was sentenced to thirty days in prison, and fined $250 for contempt of courtroom for refusing to testify at the grand jury hearing. She evaded arrest by hiding in churches, with the police failing to arrest her, arguing it would lead to violence.^[26] The Brawley family unit then fled New York country, travelling around the country for several months earlier settling in Virginia Beach.^[27]

Possible motives [edit]

Much of the grand jury evidence pointed to a possible motive for Brawley's falsifying the incident: trying to avoid violent punishment from her mother and specially her stepfather, Ralph King. Witnesses testified that Glenda Brawley had previously beaten her girl for running away, and for spending nights with boys. Male monarch had a history of violence that included stabbing his first married woman 14 times, which afterwards escalated into him shooting and killing her. At that place was considerable evidence that King could and would violently attack Brawley: when Brawley had been arrested on a shoplifting charge the previous May, Rex attempted to beat her for the offense while at the police force station. Witnesses also described Male monarch as having talked virtually his stepdaughter in a sexualizing manner.^[28]

On the day of her alleged disappearance, Brawley had skipped school to visit her boyfriend, Todd Buxton, who was serving a half dozen-calendar month jail sentence. When Buxton's mother (with whom she had visited Buxton in jail) urged her to become domicile before she got in trouble, Brawley told her, "I'1000 already in trouble." She described how angry King was over a previous incident of her staying out late.^[29]

Neighbors also told the yard jury that in February they overheard Glenda Brawley proverb to King, "You lot shouldn't accept took the money considering later on it all comes out, they're going to find out the truth." Another neighbor heard Mrs. Brawley say, "They know we're lying, and they're going to find out and come and get usa."^[28]

In April 1989, New York Newsday published claims by a boyfriend of Brawley's, Daryl Rodriguez, that she had told him the story was fabricated, with help from her female parent, in lodge to avert the wrath of her stepfather.^[thirty] Writing most the case in a 2004 book on perceptions of racial violence, sociologist Jonathan Markovitz concluded that "it is reasonable to advise that Brawley'south fearfulness and the kinds of suffering that she must take gone through must accept been truly staggering if they were enough to force her to resort to cutting her hair, roofing herself in feces, and itch into a garbage bag."^[6]

Aftermath [edit]

The case highlighted mistrust of legal institutions within the black customs.^[21] Legal scholar Patricia J. Williams wrote in 1991 that the teenager "has been the victim of some unspeakable criminal offense. No matter how she got at that place. No matter who did it to her—and even if she did it to herself."^[31] These comments aroused controversy as well; Suzanna Sherry responded to Williams in her book Beyond All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Police force, writing "The radical multiculturalists seem unable or unwilling to differentiate between Brawley's fantasized rape and some other woman'southward real ane. Indifference to the distinction between fact and fiction minimizes real suffering by implying that it is no worse than imagined or self-inflicted suffering."^[32]

Reviewing Spike Lee's movie Practice the Right Thing, cultural critic Stanley Crouch wrote negatively of, "men like Vernon Mason who sold out a good reputation in a contemptuous bid for political ability by pimping existent victims of racism in gild to smoke-screen Tawana Brawley's lies."^[33] On May 21, 1990, Alton H. Maddox was indefinitely suspended by the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn afterwards failing to announced before a disciplinary hearing to reply allegations regarding his conduct in the Brawley example.^[34]

In 1998, Pagones was awarded $345,000 through a lawsuit for defamation of character that he had brought confronting Sharpton, Maddox and Mason; Pagones initially sought $395 million. The jury institute Sharpton liable for making seven defamatory statements well-nigh Pagones, Maddox for two and Mason for one. The jury deadlocked on four of the 22 statements over which Pagones had sued, and it found eight statements to exist not-defamatory.^[35] In a later interview, Pagones said the turmoil caused by the accusations of Brawley and her directorate had price him his showtime matrimony and much personal grief.^[36]

Pagones also sued Brawley. She defaulted by not appearing at the trial, and the estimate ordered her to pay Pagones damages of $185,000.^[37] The $65,000 judgment levied confronting Al Sharpton was paid for him in 2001 past supporters, including chaser Johnnie Cochran and businessman Earl G. Graves, Jr.^[38] In December 2012, the New York Post reported that Maddox had paid his judgment of $97,000 and Bricklayer was making payments on the $188,000 which he owed. Brawley reportedly had not made whatever payments.^[39] The following month a court ordered her wages garnished to pay Pagones.^{[10] [40] [41]}

In a 1997 appearance, Brawley maintained she did not invent the story; she still had supporters.^[42] In November 2007, Brawley'due south stepfather and female parent, in a 20th-anniversary characteristic for the New York Daily News, contended the attack happened. "How could nosotros brand this upward and take down the state of New York? We're just regular people," Glenda Brawley said. They said they had asked New York State Attorney Full general Andrew Cuomo and Governor Eliot Spitzer to reopen the example. They also said that Brawley would speak at whatever legal proceedings.^[43] As of 2013, Brawley works as a nurse in rural Virginia, nether a new name.^{[44] [45]} Influenced by her interactions with Louis Farrakhan (who supported her claims), Brawley converted to Islam during the trial, and according to the Daily News she remains an active member of the Nation of Islam.^[46]

In popular civilisation [edit]

• Spike Lee's 1989 picture Exercise the Right Thing features a shot of graffiti which says "Tawana told the truth."^[10]
• Brawley appeared alongside Sharpton in the music video for Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", which was directed and produced past Lee.^[47]
• The 1990 Constabulary & Order episode "Out of the Half-Light" is a fictionalized retelling of the Brawley case.^[48] The example is likewise discussed in the 2014 Law & Club: Special Victims Unit of measurement episode "Criminal Stories".
• Brawley is referenced by Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes in the vocal "His Story" from TLC's debut album Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip (1992).^[49]
• Joyce Carol Oates's 2015 novel The Sacrifice is a fictionalized account of the Brawley case.^[fifty]
• In 2018 the case was covered in Fox Nation's Scandalous.^[51]

See as well [edit]

• A Rape on Campus
• Crystal Mangum
• Domestic violence
• Knuckles lacrosse instance
• False accusation of rape
• Marissa Alexander instance
• Racial hoax

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} McFadden, Robert D. (Baronial 1, 1990). Outrage: the story backside the Tawana Brawley hoax. Bantam. ISBN9780553057560 . Retrieved June 3, 2018.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Tawana Brawley M Jury Report, October 1988
3. ^ Diamond, Edwin (1991). The Media Show: The Irresolute Face of the News, 1985–1990. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Printing. The nifty paradox of Brawley 2 was that this impaired show went on for months, encouraged by the regime and the media. The "white ability construction" – as Sharpton calls information technology – all just propped up the advisers' shaky scenarios. The governor and the attorney full general, their eyes on electoral politics as well as the case, gave the advent of trying to avert criminal offence to whatever constituency, black or white.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Rosenblatt, Albert M. (2015). "County Legal History" (PDF). The Historical Guild of the New York Courts: 39.
5. ^ Yardley, Jim (December three, 1997). "Later on a Decade, Brawley Reappears and Repeats Charges". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014.
6. ^ ^{a b} Markovitz, Jonathan (2004). Legacies of Lynching: Racial Violence and Retentivity. University of Minnesota Press.
7. ^ Jewell, M. Sue (1993). From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond: Cultural Images and the Shaping of U.S. Social Policy. Routledge. p. 200.
8. ^ Newkirk, Pamela. Within the Veil: Blackness Journalists, White Media. New York Academy Press. pp. 152–54.
9. ^ ^{a b} "Brawley Case: Stubborn Puzzle, Silent Victim". The New York Times. February 29, 1988.
10. ^ ^{a b c} Gartland, Michael (Baronial iv, 2013). "Pay-up time for Brawley: '87 rape-hoaxer finally shells out for slander". New York Post . Retrieved August eleven, 2013.
11. ^ "A tense human relationship". Times Herald-Record. November 1, 2006. Archived from the original on June 14, 2007. Retrieved April 18, 2008. Some witnesses say they saw Brawley in Newburgh during the time she was missing, merely that never was proven. In December 1987, more than 1,000 people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, march in Brawley's support through the city streets. In Oct 1988, a special grand jury rules Brawley'due south claims a hoax.
12. ^ ^{a b} Smith, Robert Charles; Seltzer, Richard (2000). Contemporary Controversies and the American Racial Divide. Rowman & Littlefield.
13. ^ ^{a b} Sleeper, Jim (February 24, 2000). "Playing politics with death". Salon . Retrieved Dec 12, 2015.
14. ^ ^{a b} Blumenthal, Ralph (1998). "Abrams Considers a Possible Hoax In Brawley Case". The New York Times . Retrieved May 21, 2018.
15. ^ Bruni, Frank (March 15, 1998). "Finally, His Day in Court; Human being Wrongly Accused in Brawley Example Will Be Heard". The New York Times . Retrieved May 20, 2018.
16. ^ Bruni, Frank (April 5, 1998). "Mourning a Son Tied to the Brawley Example". The New York Times . Retrieved May xx, 2018.
17. ^ Markovitz, Jonathan (2004). Legacies of lynching : racial violence and memory. Minneapolis: Academy of Minnesota Press. p. 92. ISBN978-0-8166-3995-3.
18. ^ Friedman, Ellen K. (1998). Morality USA. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Printing. p. 69. ISBN9780816627493. For segments of the black printing, however, the Brawley story'due south truth was not in question: the instance simply demonstrated the bankruptcy of the white justice system.
19. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (1990). Outrage : the story backside the Tawana Brawley hoax . New York: Bantam. ISBN9780553057560.
20. ^ Leid, Utrice (Apr 26 – May 2, 1989). "It's an outrage!". The City Sun. The same media that demanded Brawley "show" her sexual attack fabricated no such demands in the Central Park case. The same media that had no difficulty identifying the underaged Wappingers Falls teenager by proper name, invading the sanctity of her habitation to show her face and even televising semi-nude pictures of her while she was in the infirmary...
21. ^ ^{a b} Miles, Martha; Madden, Richard L. (October 9, 1988). "Later on the Grand Jury; What Happened to Tawana Brawley's Case – And to Attitudes Well-nigh Race and Justice". The New York Times . Retrieved Apr 18, 2008.
22. ^ Hill, Michael (January thirteen, 1998). "Human being says Brawley seemed to be faking". Albany Times Union. p. B2.
23. ^ Gartland, Michael (December 23, 2012). "25 years after her rape claims sparked a firestorm, Tawana Brawley avoids the spotlight". New York Post . Retrieved January 16, 2014.
24. ^ Glaberson, William (July 24, 1998). "Once Again, Brawley Declines to Prove". The New York Times . Retrieved March xxx, 2008.
25. ^ "Grand Jury Decides to Amendment Brawley". Chicago Tribune via The New York Times. 16 August 1988.
26. ^ Schmalz, Jeffrey (22 July 1988). "Disputes Stalling Police Agencies In Plans to Abort Glenda Brawley". The New York Times.
27. ^ "The Brawley Family Moves to Virginia Beach". The New York Times. 21 September 1988.
28. ^ ^{a b} "Evidence Points to Deceit past Brawley". The New York Times. September 27, 1988. Retrieved Jan xx, 2008.
29. ^ "Brawley Example: Stubborn Puzzle, Silent Victim". The New York Times. February 29, 1988. Retrieved January 20, 2008. She vanished on a cold, moonless autumn night in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., from a strip of gas stations and fast-food outlets that stand as a kind of neon-lit mockery of Washington Irving's quaint old haunts up the Hudson.
30. ^ "Paper Says Brawley Friend Was Told of Faked Set on". The New York Times. April 28, 1989. Retrieved April 22, 2008.
31. ^ Williams, Patricia J. (1991). The Alchemy of Race and Rights . Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 169. ISBN978-0-674-01471-viii.
32. ^ Farber, Daniel A.; Sherry, Sue (1997). Across All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Law . Oxford University Press. p. 96. ISBN978-0-xix-510717-3.
33. ^ Hunker, Stanley (June xx, 1989). "Practise the Race Thing: Spike Lee's Afro-fascist chic". The Village Voice.
34. ^ Lubasch, Arnold (May 22, 1990). "Court suspends Maddox for refusal to testify at grievance hearing". The New York Times. p. B1.
35. ^ "Winner in Brawley suit says victory is bittersweet". Poughkeepsie, New York: CNN. Reuters, Associated Printing. Archived from the original on August 11, 2002. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
36. ^ Sverdlik, Alan. (1999-02-xvi) "Pagones and Wife Dissever – He Blames Stress of Brawley Ordeal" Archived 2008-10-12 at the Wayback Machine, New York Post, retrieved 2009-12-29.
37. ^ Fried, Joseph P. (March 2, 2003). "Hoping Brawley Thinks Of 'Damage She Caused'". New York Times . Retrieved March twenty, 2007.
38. ^ "Sharpton's Debt in Brawley Defamation Is Paid by Supporters", The New York Times, June 15, 2001
39. ^ Italiano, Laura (December 25, 2012). "Now pay up, Tawana". New York Post . Retrieved December 25, 2012.
40. ^ Barry, John Westward. (2013-08-05). "Tawana Brawley begins to repay prosecutor she accused". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2014-05-11. Retrieved 2019-09-19 .
41. ^ Memmott, Marker (2013-08-05). "15 Years Later, Tawana Brawley Has Paid 1 Percent Of Penalty". NPR. Archived from the original on 2015-07-07. Retrieved 2019-09-nineteen .
42. ^ Margolin, Josh (December 3, 1997). "I'm not a liar". Associated Printing. Archived from the original on September 21, 2010. Retrieved May 9, 2008.
43. ^ Block, Dorian (November 18, 2007). "20 years subsequently, Tawana Brawley has turned dorsum on the past". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on November 20, 2007. Retrieved May nine, 2008.
44. ^ Roane, Kit R. (Producer) (June 3, 2013). The Tawana Brawley Story (Documentary). Retro Report.
45. ^ Cake, Dorian (November xviii, 2007). "twenty years later, Tawana Brawley has turned back on the past". New York Daily News . Retrieved Jan 11, 2022.
46. ^ Block, Dorian (November 18, 2007). "20 years later, Tawana Brawley has turned back on the past". New York Daily News . Retrieved January 11, 2022.
47. ^ Grow, Kory (June xxx, 2014). "Riot on the Set: How Public Enemy Crafted the Canticle 'Fight the Power'". Rolling Rock . Retrieved August 22, 2017.
48. ^ Erickson, Hal. "Law & Order: Out of the One-half-Light (1990)". AllMovie . Retrieved August 22, 2017.
49. ^ Platon, Adelle (Feb 24, 2017). "'We're TLC and We Just Tell It Like It Is': Chilli on Trio's Unfiltered Debut 'Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip' 25 Years Later". Billboard . Retrieved Feb 10, 2018.
50. ^ Gay, Roxane (January 30, 2015). "'The Cede,' past Joyce Carol Oates". The New York Times . Retrieved July 1, 2018.
51. ^ "Flim-flam Nation's 'Scandalous: The Mysterious Story of Tawana Brawley' goes in-depth on the prevarication that fabricated al Sharpton famous". 26 Nov 2018.

External links [edit]

• Chin, Pat (December 12, 1997). "Tawana Brawley Speaks Out". Workers Earth Party. Retrieved January xiv, 2006. (another view of Brawley'southward advent in Brooklyn in 1997)
• Pagones five. Maddox, et al. – Decision of the Supreme Court of New York, Canton of Dutchess Archived 2017-ten-19 at the Wayback Machine
• Tawana Brawley topic page, The New York Times
• "The Tawana Brawley Story", New York Times video
• Al Sharpton 1988 Poughkeepsie march photo by lensman/filmmaker Clay Walker
• Booknotes interview with M.A. Farber on Outrage: The Story Behind the Tawana Brawley Hoax, September 16, 1990.
• Tawana Brawley Chiliad Jury Study

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawana_Brawley_rape_allegations

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