Tawana Brawley

Tawana Vicenia Brawley (born December 15, 1971) is an African American woman from New York who gained notoriety in November 1987 at age 15 when she accused four white men of kidnapping and raping her over a four-day period.

On November 28, 1987, Brawley was found in a trash bag after having been missing for four days from her home in Wappingers Falls, New York.

She had racial slurs written on her body and was covered in feces.

The feces came from a collie owned by a resident of the building where Brawley was found.

Brawley accused four white men of having raped her.

The charges received national attention in part because of the appalling condition in which she had been left, her young age, and the professional status of the persons she accused of the crime (including police officers and a prosecuting attorney).

Brawley's advisers—Al Sharpton, Alton H. Maddox, and C. Vernon Mason—helped in bringing the case to national prominence.

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 apartment 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 "bitch" were discovered written on her torso with charcoal.

A detective from the sheriff's juvenile aid bureau, among others, was summoned to interview Brawley, but she remained unresponsive.

The family requested a black officer, which the police department was able to provide.

Brawley, described as having an "extremely spacey" look on her face, 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 only one word: "neon".

Through gestures and writing, however, she indicated she had been raped repeatedly in a wooded area by six white men, at least one of whom, she said, was a police officer.

A sexual assault kit was administered, and police began building a case.

Brawley provided no names or descriptions of her assailants.

She later told others that there had been no rape, only other kinds of sexual abuse.

Forensic tests found no evidence of sexual assault or sexual intercourse.

There was no evidence of exposure to elements, which would have been expected in a victim held for several days in the woods at a time when the temperature dropped below freezing at night.

The initial public response to Brawley's story was mostly sympathetic.

Bill Cosby offered a $25,000 reward for information on the case, while Don King pledged $100,000 toward Brawley's education.

In December 1987, more than one thousand people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, marched through the streets of Newburgh, New York, in support of Brawley.

Brawley's claims in the case 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 Mason, began handling Brawley's publicity, the case quickly became highly controversial.

Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason generated a national media sensation.

The three said that officials all the way up to the state government were trying to cover up defendants in the case because they were white.

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.

Harry Crist Jr., a police officer who committed suicide shortly after the period when Brawley was allegedly held captive, became a suspect in the case.

Steven Pagones, an assistant district attorney in Dutchess County, New York, attempted to establish an alibi for Crist, stating that he had been with Crist during that period of time.

Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason then said that Crist and Pagones were two of the rapists.

They also accused Pagones, a Greek American, of being a racist and a white supremacist.

Based on Crist's suicide note, The New York Times reported that he killed himself because his girlfriend ended their relationship shortly before his death, and because he was upset that he was unable to become a state trooper.

After hearing evidence, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had not been the victim of a forcible sexual assault, and that she may have created the appearance of such an attack herself.

Steven Pagones, the Greek American New York prosecutor whom Brawley had accused as being one of her assailants, later successfully sued Brawley, and her three advisers, for defamation.

Brawley received support from the African American community.

Some academics have suggested that Brawley was victimized by biased reporting that was influenced by racial stereotypes.

The mainstream media's coverage drew heated criticism from the African American press, and from many black leaders who believed the teenager and her story.

The grand jury's conclusions decreased support for Brawley and her advisers; Brawley's family have maintained that the allegations were true.