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Twenty-Five Years Later, Tawana Brawley Tracked Down In Virginia And Hit With Roughly $500,000 Bill
JonathanTurley.org ^ | February 1, 2013 | Jonathan Turley

Posted on 01/23/2023 7:37:02 AM PST by billorites

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.”


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: alsharpton; tawanabrawley

1 posted on 01/23/2023 7:37:02 AM PST by billorites
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To: billorites

Good luck collecting on that debt.


2 posted on 01/23/2023 7:38:30 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: billorites

This story is ten years old. Why is it news?


3 posted on 01/23/2023 7:39:37 AM PST by Berosus (I wish I had as much faith in God as liberals have in government.)
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To: billorites
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.

No self respecting institution of any sort would highlight Sharpton. I lost any respect that I had for Bill O'reilly when he would give him airtime on his show. He's a race pimp and a hoaxster who ruined lives, spit.

4 posted on 01/23/2023 7:40:55 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: billorites

25 years to catch up,to her? What did they track her down with? An Asthmatic Horse with a bum leg?


5 posted on 01/23/2023 7:41:35 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Bob434
25 years to catch up,to her? What did they track her down with? An Asthmatic Horse with a bum leg?

She's a protected class, hiding in plain sight.

6 posted on 01/23/2023 7:43:38 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: billorites

Compare the 66 thousand Sharpton was supposed to pay for defamation to the billion Alex Jones was.


7 posted on 01/23/2023 7:53:18 AM PST by AndyTheBear
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To: 1Old Pro

“I lost any respect that I had for Bill O’reilly when he would give him airtime on his show.”

Fair enough as BOR didn’t respect you and considered you to be “far right”.


8 posted on 01/23/2023 7:54:06 AM PST by utax
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To: billorites

good


9 posted on 01/23/2023 7:54:48 AM PST by ronniesgal (Just GET A JOB already. )
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To: Berosus

Not sure BUT ut could be news since Sharpton said this eeek end that he still believed the rape story.


10 posted on 01/23/2023 8:00:07 AM PST by RWGinger (LGB)
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To: Berosus

if you read the article you would know why


11 posted on 01/23/2023 8:00:35 AM PST by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare)
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To: Berosus
This story is ten years old. Why is it news?

I appreciate updates on these cases. I wish there was more follow-up on Sharpton's tax problems. And what's up with Jussie Smollett, although much more recent?

12 posted on 01/23/2023 8:03:04 AM PST by gloryblaze
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To: Carriage Hill

She should hire an attorney and sue Al Sharpton’s arse into poverty.


13 posted on 01/23/2023 8:10:21 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Great minds drink alike...me and my baby havin' a hell of a night. - - BB King)
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To: billorites

Vacenia??? LOLOL!!!


14 posted on 01/23/2023 8:28:57 AM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: billorites

“Tracked down.” Her residency has been known publicly for years. Why now?


15 posted on 01/23/2023 8:31:02 AM PST by 3RIVRS
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To: billorites

Al is always on the take,,,,,but he never pays any taxes,,,,last I read he was $4 million in arrears.


16 posted on 01/23/2023 8:36:11 AM PST by chopperk ( )
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Agreed.
What’s the Statute of Limitations on something like that?


17 posted on 01/23/2023 9:20:24 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Carriage Hill

Civil suit? Probably none. Can’t say.


18 posted on 01/23/2023 9:54:46 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Great minds drink alike...me and my baby havin' a hell of a night. - - BB King)
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To: billorites

I don’t think highly of this woman, but she was a young teen when it happened. I think Sharpton is more to blame, and should bear the majority of this burden.


19 posted on 01/23/2023 10:26:21 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: billorites; SunkenCiv

If I wasn’t already following another religion, I would probably make a good Zoroastrian, because I don’t care much for folks whose lives and careers are built on lies. This includes fake Native Americans, fake reverends, and self-proclaimed “black leaders” whose skin color is about as light as mine (and I’m a W.A.S.P.!). Accordingly, one of my fantasies is to have a reporter or talk show host interview Al Sharpton, and ask him only questions about spiritual issues — no politics. For example, we could start with “Of all the baptisms, weddings, and funerals you have presided over, do any stand out?” And then maybe some doctrinal questions, like if he believes in the pre-Tribulation or post-Tribulation Rapture. When Sharpton cannot give coherent answers to those questions, he will be revealed for the phony man-of-the-cloth that he really is, and his head will probably explode when he realizes that the whole country knows he has never been part of the solution, just part of the problem.


20 posted on 01/23/2023 12:12:37 PM PST by Berosus (I wish I had as much faith in God as liberals have in government.)
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