Associated Press – November 18, 2007:
Twenty years after her allegations of a racially charged rape became a national flashpoint, Tawana Brawley’s mother and stepfather want to reopen the case, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Glenda Brawley and Ralph King want to press Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to re-examine the November 1987 incident, which a state grand jury ultimately concluded was a hoax, the Daily News reported.
“New York State owes my daughter. They owe her the truth,” said Glenda Brawley. She reiterated her stance that her daughter was indeed raped by a group of white men who smeared her with feces and scrawled racial epithets on her body.
You can read the original grand jury report here. There are plenty of interesting tidbits, but the most bizarre is that Tawana Brawley refused to appear before the grand jury to testify. She’s the victim, why wouldn’t she testify?!
Here’s a good summary of the problems of the case (via Wikipedia):
In the decision, the grand jury noted many problems with Brawley’s story. Among these were the results of the rape kit, which did not indicate sexual assault. Also, despite her claim of having been held captive for days, Brawley was not suffering from exposure, was well nourished, and appeared to have brushed her teeth recently. There were no burns on her body, despite her clothing being charred. A shoe she was wearing was cut through, yet she had sustained no injuries to her foot. The racial epithets written on her were upside-down, which led to suspicion that Brawley herself wrote the words. Testimony from her schoolmates indicated she had attended a local party during the time of her supposed abduction, and one witness claimed to have observed Brawley climbing into the garbage bag.
You ask why she wouldn’t want to testify in front of the grand jury, betraying your complete lack of understanding of rape trauma, and the long lasting effects of trauma on victims.
Reliving, for testimony purposes, incidents of violent assault, can be unbelievably traumatic. How sensitive of you to think about that.
There is a small downside that the reason that she wouldn’t want to testify is because either her story is a full or partial fabrication. If that’s the case, then she’s misused the legal system horribly. If not, she’s been further traumatized by a legal system that has great difficulties with how to deal with assault and sex crimes, as they’re often he-said/she-said (e.g. contentious) accusations. Rev Al Sharpton jumped on the bandwagon to bring her case to attention; whether he was an unwitting dupe is unknown, and I’d sure like to find out.
The reason she wouldn’t testify wasn’t ‘trauma’ — the lying tramp was out partying for 4 days in Crack Alley.
Didn’t the individual most responsible for inflaming racial divisions over this incident recently run for president as a Democrat, and treated as an equal and not as the racial huckster and hater that he really is?
Democrats. Sheesh, such a pitiful and weak political party.
Hmmmm. Duke Lacrosse team ring any bells?
Lets blame dem white folk. Den Reverent Shawpton can hep us gets some benjamins.
#1 – You state that the fact that an accuser may very well be lying is “a small downside”. Really? It sure as hell isn’t a small downside to the guy that’s having his life destroyed and is being thrown into jail (possibly for life).
Thanks to these so called “Rape Shield Laws” that many states have enacted, any woman can point her finger at any man and have him thrown in jail immediately. She then has no duty to go through the “trauma” of proving or even providing details of her case in court.
If you would like some detail on how these laws can harm innocent men, look no further than the Koby Briant case.
#1 “You ask why she wouldn’t want to testify in front of the grand jury, betraying your complete lack of understanding of rape trauma, and the long lasting effects of trauma on victims. ”
She talked about it with everybody else. I think she would have been able to suffer through once more for the grand jury.
from the wikipedia article…
Brawley maintains she did not invent the story, and she still has supporters.[10] In November 2007, Brawley’s mother and stepfather, in a 20th anniversary feature for the New York Daily News, said, “We should be millionaires.”
tells me everything I need to know about these people.
(by these people I mean the Brawley family)
If the family really wants to open the case, then Ms Brawley should be charged with making a false police report this time. She and Sharpton got off light last time. Its time to make an example of race baiters and their like, who stir up the racial pot for financial gain or political advantage.
And #1 if you believe ANY part of Brawley’s story, then I have a bridge to sell you.
I hate her for giving the nation Al Sharpton. After that, nobody would take him seriously……nawwwww.
Three words: statute of limitations
Would any of you care to bet that either of the Right Reverends Al or Jesse are going to utter so much as one single solitary word about this crock ‘o shit?
This sounds like some racial shit!
Don’t know what the truth is.
But I KNOW this for sure: none of you can speak confidently about this case, based solely on media reports.
#12, Greg Allen,
I have to agree with you.
Is her story false ? I really have no idea. All the statements one way or another seem slanted to benefit one side. The most disturbing thing though is when an asshole like #7, gquaglia spout their racist, sexist, message.
#13, the whole Brawley incident was racist and like the Duke fiasco, innocent people’s reputations were ruined just to satisfy someones bullshit agenda. So if I’m an asshole then you are a clueless douche who’s head is so far up his liberal ass that he can’t see the world for what it really is.
Note to the moderators, I didn’t start the name calling here.
Sorry, gregallen, but while I cannot and will not speak for others, I can utilize my extensive abilities in deduction, induction, abstraction and probability estimation in combination with many years of personally acquired empirical data and come to a conclusion with an extremely low probability of error in this case.
But anyone with a modicum of what is referred to as ‘common sense’ is fully cognizant of the fact that the actual chance of what she claims to have happened to her is effectively zero.
As some apparently need to be reminded, the difference between 0.0 and 0.00000000000001 is of interest only to theoreticians; in the real world, we can and should – and DO – treat them both as zero. In theory, you could hit the Powerball jackpot, be struck by lightning and be elected President, all on February 29th, but in reality we all know that it ain’t gonna happen, and likewise – in theory – Brawley’s story could be true – but in realty, it’s nothing more than a pathetically stupid pack of absurd lies with zero truth value…
Twana Brawley’s only crime is that she’s not a pretty white girl.
This whole case is interesting. But I would tend to agree with the girl that she was raped. Why would anyone go to the length of putting shit and piss over their body. Put themselve in a garbage bag as evidence as a rape? Then not place the most obvious eveidence which is trauma to her sexual parts. To me something is not right about this case in the sense that I find it hard to beleive that if the motivation was financial gain on the victims part. That she would over look the obvious evidence of rape.
Also, Al Sharpton couldnt be where he is today by being a stupid man. I cannot see a man like that backing something like this without thoroughly examining the evidence.
Furthermore the fact that she was 15 and even if she was not forced into sex and she willingly had sex with these men. She is still a minor and its considered rape in most parts. It seems that everyone forgot that this was a 15 yr old girl. A minor not an adult.
Finally what court would allow a minor to testify in front of a grand jury. This alone makes me question the judgement of the court itself. I have never heard of anything so rediculous. No wonder she changed her mind.
If these obvious facts dont come out in a discussion like this. Maybe the issue here isnt rape. But the double standards that so many people have towards a young black woman who points a finger at rapist’s who happen to be white men.
Terry,
Are you f***ing retarded?!?!
She made it all up! The reason she went thru all of that craziness, to include covering herself with feces, etc, was that she was terrified of her stepdad.
Ralph King stabbed his first wife 13 times, killed her, got away with it, married Tawana’s mom, and then proceeded to beat the shit out of her on any occasion.
Here’s a 15 year old girl who stays out, does drugs, f***s thugs (her previous boyfriend at that time was in jail), and basically is a parent’s worst nighmare. That was complicated by the fact that her parents were every kid’s worst nightmare.
A whole family of ignorant assclowns, used for political purposes by a douchebag like Al Sharpton (reverend my ass!).
It amazes me that you find anything believable about them or their story. They just want to get paid!
But, many blacks and alot of guilt-ridden liberal whites just can’t wait to think the worst and assume she was raped by “tha Man”.
The whole Brawley family, Al Sharpton, and YOU, Terry, ought to be lined up and ass-raped by a rhinoceros!
Pinger, well said !!!!!