15 Years Later, Tawana Brawley Has Paid 1 Percent Of Penalty

[alp227]

by Mark Memmott
August 05, 2013 1:17 PM

It was 1987 when a black teenager, Tawana Brawley, said she had been raped and kidnapped by a group of white men in Dutchess County, N.Y.

Her story of being attacked, scrawled with racial slurs, smeared with feces and left beside a road wrapped in a plastic bag made front pages across the nation — especially after the Rev. Al Sharpton took up her case.

But, as the Associated Press reminds readers, "a special state grand jury later determined that Brawley had fabricated her claims, perhaps to avoid punishment for staying out late."

In 1998, Steven Pagones, who was the county prosecutor at the time, won a defamation suit against Sharpton, Brawley and Brawley's attorneys. They had accused Pagones of being among Brawley's attackers.

"Sharpton has since paid off his ($65,000) debt with money raised by his supporters," the Village Voice says. Brawley was ordered to pay $190,000.

It's been 15 years. With interest, the judgment against the now 40-year-old Brawley has grown to more than $430,000. Finally, the Poughkeepsie Journal reports, Pagones is receiving some of the money: $3,700, or about 1 percent of what he's now owed.

full: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/05/209194252/15-years-later-tawana-brawley-has-paid-1-percent-of-penalty

[badtoworse]

1. Excellent! It's about time - what she did was reprehensible.

[Warpy]

2. She's not a 15 year old shithead any more

She grew up and apparently came to terms with what she did. Now that she is making an adequate salary, she is beginning to pay back.

I'm actually impressed by this. I hope she's managed to create a sane life for herself after all these years.

But yeah, when she was 15, she was horrible, a completely rotten kid.

[msanthrope]

5. She didn't do it willingly. Her wages are being garnished. nt

[badtoworse]

6. Seriously? Is that why her wages are being garnished to pay Pagones?

The New York Post found her in Virginia and publicized it. Pagones then filed for the garnishment. She didn't come to terms; she just got caught (finally).

[Boom Sound 416]

7. her wages are garnished

because the ny post found her.

she's not paying in good faith.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/pay_up_time_for_brawley_8q8M98zvpApS46BonCokvI

[HiPointDem]

9. she was 15 when it happened. 16 when she was sued. 18 when the verdict came in & 25

when the damages were assessed.

it's complete bullshit.

[badtoworse]

11. She made false rape accusations and disappeared when her lies were exposed

She damaged reputations; made it more difficult for real rape victims to come forward and did great damage to race relations. If she had any personal integrity, she would have come forward on her own a long time ago. You think that's "complete bullshit"?

She deserved jail time.

[HiPointDem]

12. she left new york in 1988, when she was 15. i really could care about her so-called 'personal

integrity,' i'm more interested in the integrity of the justice system.

which used not to assess *ridiculous* penalties on minors.

which used not to sue *minors* for defamation.

[badtoworse]

14. Lack of personal integrity is one of the main reasons we need a justice system.

So Pagones should have no recourse because Brawley was 15 when she defamed him? We'll just have to disagree about whether 15 year olds get a pass when they hurt people and do the damage she did..

[HiPointDem]

16. there have always been & will always be people whom others define as "lacking personal integrity".

that's a moral judgment. the law doesn't make moral judgments. it makes judgments about whether someone broke a law.

Yes, we'll have to disagree about whether children should be held to the same standards and assessed the same penalties as adults.

[JI7]

13. really ? blaming her for damage to race relations ?

that's bs.

[badtoworse]

15. Actually, I think Sharpton, Maddox and Mason should wear most of the blame for that.

[HiPointDem]

17. but they don't. all of these *adults* but one got less financial penalty than the 15 year old,

& at least two of them got their fines paid by someone else.

and you know none of it would have gone *anywhere* without the adults using the child for political purposes.

al sharpton still has a career and makes lots of money. he's supposedly a spokesman for the entire 'black community'.

brawley is an lpn who works in a nursing home & now will have her wages garnished *forever*. because there is no way in hell she can pay off half a million dollars.

also her credit is ruined so if she ever loses the job she's got -- well, good luck.

so far as i know, pagones continued to advance in his career and did quite well for himself. i seriously doubt he suffered $185K worth of damage, let alone half a mill.

[badtoworse]

18. So what's wrong with coming clean now that she's 41 years old?

I believe Pagones would let her off the hook if she did that.

[HiPointDem]

19. I don't know the contents of her mind. But personally, I think there's something gruesome

about Pagones' extorting her for a 'confession'.

[badtoworse]

22. Pagones was falsely accused of raping a child and he's the bad guy?

She owes an apology to the public as well as to Pagones and if she doesn't see that, then she deserves to have her wages garnished for the rest of her life. When you do terrible things, you need to make them right - it's that simple.

I just read Post 20 - I had forgotten about that part. She was 25 and still insisted that her lies were the truth. She was lucky the court only awarded $180,000 when she failed to show up.

Looking at the whole history of this, I would say she was one rotten kid that didn't change as she got older. Just about everything she did was her own choice. It's hard to feel sorry for her.

[HiPointDem]

28. She was *not* 25 when the suit was begun. She was 16. That the damages weren't assessed

until she was 25 frankly stinks to high heaven.

[tammywammy]

29. She should apologize for making it all up.

He said he'd forgive the judgment if she just finally would admit that she made it up (which is VERY apparent if you read the grand jury's report). The amount has increase significantly due to interest accrued. She also failed to show up for any of the court proceedings regarding the defamation suit.

[HiPointDem]

31. and i find his attempt to extort her 'confession' repugnant. either he was damaged or he was

not.

[badtoworse]

33. The court flound he was damaged. That is indisputable.

[HiPointDem]

34. i'm not disputing it.

[badtoworse]

36. The real problem here is that she was a pretty rotten kid who took no responsibility for her actions

Apparently, she never changed and for some reason, HiPointDem does not want to accept that.

[badtoworse]

32. What difference does that make? At 15, you know what's right and what's wrong...

and under the law, I believe the onus was on her and her defense to establish why she shouldn't be held responsible for her torts. I have no problem with that.

You obviously disagree, so at what age do you think minors should be held liable in situations such as this?

[Go Vols]

20. She was 24 during this time.

Shortly thereafter, Brawley appeared at a rally on December 2, 1997 in Brooklyn, New York, which was videotaped by Regional News Network and admitted in evidence as plaintiff’s exhibit 35. At that rally she caustically referred to plaintiff’s offer as a "bribe" and said she would not do anything to hurt her friend and attorney Mr. Maddox. She vocally maintained before a partisan audience that the things she said happened really did happen. The Court was appalled that Brawley would see fit to travel from the Washington, D.C. area to a rally in Brooklyn, but did not see fit to travel to Poughkeepsie to testify under oath before the jury.

http://www.nycourts.gov/press/old_keep/brawley.htm

[HiPointDem]

21. she wasn't prosecuted for that rally. she was prosecuted when she was 16 for something she

did when she was 15.

i have been searching the internet for some footage of that rally to find out *exactly* what she said, & haven't been able to find any. if you can help with that...

[Go Vols]

23. The court document I linked to doesn't

say she was prosecuted for the rally.It shows that at 24 she was still claiming the same thing she said at 15 and had opportunity to show up in court and try to minimize a judgement against her.She did not show.

I have yet to find a vid of her at the rally either.

[HiPointDem]

25. The fact remains that she owes nearly half a million dollars for something she did when she was

15, a judgment from a case prosecuted when she was 16.

[Archae]

3. Have ANY of the accusers "come to terms?"

I have never heard of any of them, including Sharpton, admitting they lied.

But, I guess IOIYAAL...

[Heather MC]

4. Sharpton should apologize for introducing the world to the Man Relaxer ugg

Seriously, I remember getting angry about this I was around her age at the time, Then I remember getting furious that she lied. NEVER lie about rape. It kills the credibility of actual rape victims. because of women like her. We have a society that doubts or feels comfortable blaming the women for an actual rape.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

8. Yes, that's what made me angry

She lied about rape. I was also stunned anyone could believe her bizarre story and rally behind her.

[Heather MC]

10. I remember being outraged at the idea of a young black girl being treated that way

At the time I was a young black girl, and I had already experienced being molested. So I took particular interest in her case because I was wrestling with whether I should tell anyone what happened to me. I decided to keep it to myself. Not directly because of her but because of the conversations that came out after that. Both men and women around me associated her false claims with all women. It was just as bad when Mike Tyson was accused of rape. No one around me male or female believed her.

And they blamed the young woman for putting herself in that situation.

At least now people speak out about victim blaming.

[sweetapogee]

24. Didn't Mike

Tyson give Tawana his Rolex during a news interview?

[pipi_k]

26. And yet...

Were that to happen today, I can honestly imagine 3/4 of DU would believe her story, no matter how bizarre it got.

And, worst of all...the believers would be screaming "RACIST!!!" at anyone who didn't believe.

I guess it wouldn't really disturb me that much that people would believe her lies. What really makes me sick is knowing that they would use their belief to justify calling other people some really nasty names.

[demwing]

38. You say you worry about nasty name calling

yet with no supporting evidence, you just called 3/4 of DU liars.

[Recursion]

27. I'm so glad somebody is standing up for the interests of white men against women of color

It's about time

[oldhippie]

35. So, slander cases should be judged .....

.... on the basis of race? Really? Different justice for different races?

[Recursion]

37. No, but you can find a one-off situation with just about any parameters

The oppression of white males through false rape accusations by women of color is so singular and rare that it gets a lot of ink, as opposed to the actual sexual violence perpetrated daily against women of color.

[badtoworse]

39. You might have a point, but this is not the hill you want to defend it on. - nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

30. She wasn't prosecuted.

The alternative to criminal prosecution in juvenile court for what she did (which is what should have happened) was civil judgment.

It would have been better for everyone had she been prosecuted, served her time for her crime(s) and then put it behind her.

Sharpton? Pay the man... but, like Vernon Mason, pay it with your own money.

[LanternWaste]

40. I'm glad hers is merely a statistical aberration rather than a general trend.

I'm glad hers is merely a statistical aberration rather than a general trend.