Man Falsely Accused of Rape by Al Sharpton Strikes Back: Advertisers Must Drop Support

Sharpton's gotten away for far too long with his media lynching of innocent people and shakedowns of businesses for political and monetary gains.


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STEVEN PAGONES: In November of 1987, 15-year-old African-American girl Tawana Brawley went missing. When she was found, it is alleged that she began telling people that she had been approached, kidnapped, raped, sodomized, and her body scrawled on with human feces by individuals whom she supposedly described as resembling white police officers. Law enforcement officials began working with her, but she soon enlisted the efforts of attorneys Alton Maddox, Vernon Mason, and a then-obscure supposed civil rights leader named Al Sharpton.

Soon thereafter, all cooperation between the Brawley camp and law enforcement was cut off.

I remember very clearly the day I was first accused of being involved in the kidnaping and rape of Tawana Brawley. I was preparing to attend a Christening on a Sunday when my phone rang. I picked up the phone, and the person asked if I was Steve Pagones; it was a media member inquiring about team Brawley’s allegations about me. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he dropped the bombshell: the Brawley team had said I was responsible for raping Brawley. I stammered, disbelieving, “That’s absurd. There’s not a shred of truth to it.” For the next 24 hours, my phone didn’t stop ringing. I was on the front page of every major newspaper in the state, and many across the country. It was simply unbelievable that the allegations had been made – and that the Brawley team made them without any evidence or support whatsoever. As soon as his charges hit the media, I had to hire around-the-clock security. I received death threats on the phone, in the mail. I had to hire armed guards for my family, for my property. My whole life was turned upside down.

Worse, because of the atmosphere and the race-baiting going on, I had to prove my innocence, as opposed to anyone having to prove my guilt. It was draining, emotionally and physically. Eventually, a grand jury found not only that I hadn’t had anything to do with whatever happened to Brawley, but that the entire story was a hoax...

But Sharpton was never really held accountable for what he did. You can watch him every night on MSNBC. He visits President Obama at the White House. Matt Lauer interviews him on NBC’s Today Show. And advertisers pay his salary...

He’ll always have to live with the Tawana Brawley story, with the damage that he caused to race relations. That’s going to be his legacy...

Read more: [link to www.truthrevolt.org]






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