Sharpton Case Jury Ordered Sequestered

The judge in the racially charged defamation trial of black activist Rev. Al Sharpton and two others ordered the jury sequestered during a second day of deliberations in Poughkeepsie. The panel of four whites and two blacks suggested to New York state Supreme Court Justice S. Barrett Hickman that they be sequestered. The panel has asked to review all 102 exhibits of evidence in the lawsuit stemming from a rape hoax of more than 10 years ago involving Tawana Brawley, a black teenager who said she was abducted and raped by six white men. Steven Pagones, a former prosecutor in Dutchess County, is suing Sharpton and two lawyers C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox, saying they defamed him by publicly calling him a rapist at least 30 times.