Tawana Brawley

In 1987, Tawana Brawley accused six white men, including police officers and a public official, of kidnapping and sexually assaulting her. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton played a major role in publicizing and campaigning on behalf of her case.

Fast Facts:

1. Born: ca. 1972
2. Hometown: Wappingers Falls, New York
3. Alma Mater: Howard University¹
4. Lawyers Alton Maddox, and C. Vernon Mason
5. Defended in public by Al Sharpton
6. Grand jury declined to bring charges
7. Continues to maintain that she was raped¹

Brawley's Claims

After missing for four days, Brawley was found lying outside a Wappingers Falls apartment where she had once lived. She was inside a garbage bag, and after she was taken to a hospital, was found to have racial epithets scrawled in charcoal on her body. Brawley claimed that she had been taken to a wooded area and raped by a group of white men; her lawyers, which included Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason later claimed that Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Anthony Pagones was one of her attackers. However, a hospital examination found no evidence of a sexual assault, nor any evidence that she had been outside for as long as she had claimed.

Grand Jury

The case became a national media sensation. A grand jury investigating the allegations determined that Brawley was not, in fact, the victim of a sexual assault and that the entire affair was a hoax. A grand jury later indicted Brawley's mother Glenda Brawley, for her involvement in the hoax, and the family moved to Virginia to escape prosecution. They have never returned to New York. Tawana Brawley later converted to Islam and attended Howard University.¹

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