Cuomo Gives Up Hope Girl Will Aid Rape Probe

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said Tuesday he has abandoned any hope that a black teen-ager will help investigators find her alleged white sexual attackers, and the state’s chief prosecutor said the FBI would try to help solve the case.

“I think it’s now clear she’s not going to cooperate, period. No matter what,” Cuomo said at a news conference.

Both Cuomo and state Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams, appointed by the governor as special prosecutor in the case, expressed frustration that lawyers for Tawana Brawley, 16, have kept the girl away from prosecutors.

“If they fail to cooperate, they will jeopardize this case,” said Abrams, who has assembled a 24-member team of lawyers and investigators to comb through whatever details can be obtained of her abduction.

Tells of Kidnaping

Brawley said she was kidnaped shortly before Thanksgiving near her home in Wappingers Falls, about 70 miles north of New York City, but she has said little else to authorities.

Her family said she was sexually abused by six white men, including one who flashed a badge and appeared to be a police officer.

She was found Nov. 28 wrapped in a plastic bag, with racial slurs written in charcoal on her chest.

Since that time, the Dutchess County district attorney and two local prosecutors disqualified themselves from the case, citing unspecified personal reasons, and Cuomo appointed Abrams to head the investigation.

Brawley’s lawyers, C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox, have advised her not to talk to investigators and have called for the decertification of a Dutchess County grand jury, which contained only two blacks.

Cuomo, Abrams Assailed

Both Cuomo and Abrams also have been the targets of harsh attacks from the Rev. Al Sharpton, an informal adviser to the family, who has called both officials racist.

Abrams announced that the FBI has assigned four agents to the case, which he said “further demonstrated the integrity and depth” of the investigation. He said the federal agents had better experience in forensic investigations than state agents.

Abrams said he would pursue both state criminal indictments as well as federal civil rights and kidnaping charges against any suspects arrested in the case.