Brawley Denies Rape Story Was a Hoax

Tawana Brawley, breaking a decade of silence, insisted that she was kidnapped and raped by white attackers, even though a grand jury declared her story a hoax. “For 10 years they’ve been lying to you,” Brawley told 600 people at a Brooklyn church. Her remarks came on the eve of opening arguments in a $150-million defamation suit against three advisors: Alton Maddox, attorney C. Vernon Mason and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Former prosecutor Steven Pagones contends that the trio defamed him by implicating him in the alleged 1987 attack on Brawley, then 15.