It took 10 years and a raucous eight-month trial but Steven Pagones finally got his name cleared in one of the nastiest, racial-hate cases in recent years.
But rage over the case still lingers, particularly in black communities. The intense emotions deliberately stirred up by black activists persist. Many still believe Pagones participated in a gang-rape of a black teenager. Some radio programs aimed at black audiences are saying what some blacks are telling reporters–that the white justice system is out to get black leaders who speak up for black victims.
The case still raises many disturbing questions: Why has it taken so long for Pagones’ defamation suit aimed at clearing his name to go to trial? How can a man prove his innocence when he has been falsely accused by a media-savvy activist seeking political gain? Are race relations in America so bad that many blacks would prefer to believe a teenager’s lie than the results of a police investigation, a special prosecutor’s finding and a grand jury report?
A jury in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., decided this week in a civil case that the Rev. Al Sharpton and lawyers Alton Maddox Jr. and C. Vernon Mason had, indeed, made defamatory statements about Pagones, then an assistant district attorney, who is white.
They were acting as “advisers” to Tawana Brawley, 15, after she charged that six white men had gang-raped her over four days in 1987, writing hate words on her body with charcoal and leaving her soiled with feces and stuffed in a garbage bag. Even though Sharpton, Maddox and Mason knew Tawana’s story didn’t check out, they publicly accused Pagones of being one of the rapists.
Sharpton, in particular, was trying to build a reputation as a black political leader and apparently saw Tawana as his ticket to fame and office. With no regard for the facts, he shrilled for weeks before TV cameras about the white rapists and focused his ugly accusations on Pagones.
In one master-stroke of racist theater played out before network media, Sharpton, Maddox and Mason had Tawana’s mother show up at a church and claim sanctuary to avoid questioning by a grand jury. They enlisted the public support of several black celebrities who helped fan national black outrage and white guilt. They demanded a special prosecutor be named and when then-Gov. Mario Cuomo did, they vilified the prosecutor in nasty racist terms.
Pagones made an easy target for Sharpton’s purposes. Tawana had indicated one of the rapists was a white policeman. Attention first focused on a part-time officer who had just committed suicide in depression over a failed romance and job difficulties. When Pagones said he had been with the man far from the woods where Tawana said she had been held, he became Sharpton’s next victim.
Sharpton repeatedly charged Pagones with rape on network TV, at rallies and in media interviews. For example, he said on a talk show in March, 1988, “We stated openly that Steven Pagones, the assistant district attorney, did it. If we’re lying, sue us, so we can go into court with you and prove you did it.”
But the three advisers were lying, as a 176-page grand jury report eventually made clear. No evidence was ever found to substantiate any of Tawana’s story. Instead she had skipped school to visit a boyfriend in prison and was afraid to go home late, fearing the anger of her stepfather. So she spent four days hanging around an empty apartment from which her family had been evicted earlier.
Then she smeared herself with dog feces she found in the yard, used charcoal from a nearby grill to write hate words on her body and covered herself with the garbage bag. Neighbors who saw her called police. But her story about being raped didn’t check out. There was no evidence of rape, no evidence she had been kidnapped and held in the woods. But she was caught in the lie and refused to tell the truth, even as Sharpton turned the matter into a national example of white racial hatred.
Pagones did file suit in October, 1988, against Brawley and Sharpton, Maddox and Mason, charging defamation. Brawley failed to respond and was declared to be in default. It took until late last year for the civil trial of the other three to get under way and they managed to drag it out for months without producing any of the evidence they promised.
They did, however, spout some of the same racial theatrics and hatred that won them so much attention a decade ago. But this time, the grand jury finding that Brawley had lied was available. The media weren’t so gullible. TV face time was limited. Black celebrities stayed away. And the jury vindicated Pagones–at long last.
Because of other incidents, Mason has been disbarred and Maddox’ law license suspended. Even Sharpton has toned down his persona somewhat because of his continuing efforts to become a mainstream political force in New York City. He ran for mayor there last year and says he plans to do so again in 2001. Brawley has changed her name to Maryam Muhammad and now lives near Washington, D.C.
In Poughkeepsie, the jury still is considering what damages to award to Pagones. But there is no way to remedy the harm done to racial relations in the United States.
President Clinton is still pushing his national dialogue on racism. But the talk has been mostly well-mannered and perfunctory. Maybe it’s time to condemn more strongly and specifically those of every race who exploit and exacerbate racial tensions and racial feelings to win lawsuits and advance their own careers–and caution the gullible public to be wary of such manipulation.
