Rape-Defamation Case Rubs New Salt in Old Wounds

It was a civil rights cause celebre that heightened racial tensions in New York with charges of a cover-up.

A decade ago, Tawana Brawley--a black 15-year-old former high school cheerleader--was discovered wrapped in a garbage bag in the hamlet of Wappingers Falls in Dutchess County, north of here.

The teenager said six white attackers--including a man with a badge--raped and sodomized her, then scrawled racial epithets on her body and chopped her hair.

Asked what happened, Brawley wrote two words on a sheet of paper: “White cop.”

Shock and outrage followed.

And now old wounds will be reopened when a $170-million defamation suit brought by one man who stood accused in the case finally begins today in state Supreme Court in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Ten years ago, reaction to the case was explosive. Then-Gov. Mario M. Cuomo named a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations. Comedian Bill Cosby and the publisher of Essence Magazine offered a $25,000 reward. Mike Tyson took the Rolex from his wrist and gave it to Brawley. He promised her a $50,000 college scholarship.

But these gestures could not match the zeal with which her advisors--the Rev. Al Sharpton and lawyers C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox Jr.--took up the cause.

In press conferences and on TV talk shows, they charged that one of her attackers was Steven A. Pagones, a young, white Dutchess County assistant district attorney.

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“We stated openly that Steven Pagones, the assistant district attorney, did it,” Sharpton proclaimed on the March 31, 1988, TV program “People Are Talking.”

“If we’re lying, sue us. . . . I’ll use your show to dare them to sue us,” Sharpton challenged.

After an exhaustive seven-month investigation, a grand jury concluded that Brawley fabricated her story alleging four days of abduction and rape, possibly to avoid punishment for staying out late.

The grand jury found that Brawley was not malnourished, wasn’t suffering from exposure and apparently had brushed her teeth. There were no injuries or broken bones. Tests at a nearby hospital for rape were negative. The teenager was seen stepping into the plastic bag in which she was found.

Pagones, who was cleared, sued.

The stakes are highest for Sharpton, who over the years has softened his image and has enjoyed some political success.

In 1992, he ran third in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary and finished a close second in New York’s recent Democratic mayoral primary. Some Democrats are promoting his candidacy for Congress.

Mason and Maddox have fallen upon harder times.

In 1990, Maddox was suspended from practicing law after not cooperating with an ethics committee scrutinizing charges he impeded justice in the Brawley case.

In 1995, Mason was disbarred for professional misconduct. He is now a seminary student.

Brawley, who attended Howard University, is living in the Washington, D.C., area under a different name. Like her advisors, she is a defendant in Pagones’ suit but has failed to respond.

Her refusal to answer subpoenas resulted in a default judgment. Pagones’ lawyers eventually hope to collect damages from her if the suit against her advisors is successful.

In court papers, Pagones charges he was harmed by “wanton, gross and reckless disregard for the truth” when his accusers knew their statements were false.

Pagones, 36, who is now an assistant New York attorney general, said the allegations caused him to suffer stomach ailments, insomnia and anxiety attacks. His case is complicated by the fact that, at the time of the accusations, he was a local prosecutor. As a public figure, he must prove the attacks by Brawley’s advisors were malicious.

Defense lawyers contend Brawley’s advisors at the time believed her story and still think it is true.

But that tactic has been limited by a decision by the trial judge, S. Barrett Hickman, who ruled that the highly comprehensive grand jury investigation revealed Brawley had lied. The judge said Sharpton, Mason and Maddox must defend themselves against accusations of malice and reckless disregard for the truth.

Sharpton says he hasn’t spoken with Brawley in years. But the bitterness between him and Pagones has not abated.

In July, after a deposition, the two men got into an argument.

“You got no case, Pagones,” Sharpton shouted.

“You’re a buffoon,” Pagones shouted back.