Larry Holmes on Tawana Brawley lawsuit
'An attampt to silence protest'
By Sharon Ayling
"An attempt to silence protest." That is how
Workers World Party leader Larry Holmes characterizes former
Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones'
lawsuit against three civil-rights leaders who acted as
advisors to Tawana Brawley 10 years ago. Workers World
interviewed Holmes on Feb. 24.
For three months, the Rev. Al Sharpton, C. Vernon Mason, and
Alton Maddox have been dragged up to a court in Poughkeepsie,
N.Y. They are on trial in a $395 million slander lawsuit
brought by Pagones, one of the men implicated in the brutal
1987 abduction and rape of Tawana Brawley.
Sharpton is a well-known Black leader who placed a strong
second in last year's New York Democratic mayoral primary.
Mason and Maddox are prominent Black civil-rights lawyers
recognized for their defiance and militancy.
Ten years ago, 16-year-old Brawley was found on the side of
a highway in Dutchess County, N.Y. She was semi-conscious and
wrapped in a plastic bag.
Brawley said six white men had abducted, raped and tortured
her over the course of four days. She said one of her attackers
flashed a badge. She identified another as Pagones.
Holmes told Workers World: "More and more, the courts are
being used to sue those who dare to fight injustice.
"Specifically, the lawsuit is calculated to discredit and
destroy the reputations and political futures of these leaders.
The government has been after Mason and Maddox since Howard
Beach, when the two lawyers provided legal counsel to the
survivor of a racist mob that killed Michael Griffith, a Black
youth, in that area in Queens in December 1986.
"The reason the government went after them," Holmes
continued, "is that they introduced a new tactic in the
struggle for justice. They demanded the appointment of a
special prosecutor."
Mason and Maddox maintained that the institutionalized
racism inherent in the judicial system made it impossible for
the victims of racist violence to receive justice. They won the
appointment of a special prosecutor after months of large
demonstrations.
In the Brawley case, Sharpton, Mason and Maddox again
demanded a special prosecutor. They refused to cooperate in the
"whitewash" investigation.
They were concerned that the courts in the small town of
Newburgh, N.Y., could not be relied on to prosecute "their
own."
The entire New York state government turned on Brawley and
her defenders. Gov. Mario Cuomo and State Attorney General
Robert Abrams refused to consider appointing a special
prosecutor. Instead, they convened a special grand jury that
demanded that Brawley testify before it under threat of
imprisonment.
Brawley was forced to flee New York.
The media, politicians, courts and cops generated one of the
biggest witch hunts in years. FBI agents and reporters hounded
Brawley through several states. Sharpton, Mason and Maddox were
demonized.
Eleven months after the attack, the grand jury dismissed the
case as a hoax-without even requesting testimony from the
medics who had treated Brawley for her injuries.
"It was a classic case of the victim being made the
criminal," Holmes said. "Why? For daring to demand a process
that might bring justice."
Today, both Mason and Maddox have been deprived of the right
to practice law in New York.
The current lawsuit "is a continuation of the attempt to
turn the courts against the victims and the advocates of
justice," Holmes concluded.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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