Tawana Brawley Case
In 1987 Mason, along with Alton H. Maddox and Al Sharpton, were advisors to Tawana Brawley, an African-American teenager who claimed to have been abducted and sexually assaulted by at least three white men, including at least one police officer and assistant district attorney Steven Pagones. However, a Grand Jury investigation into Brawley's allegations determined that she "had not been abducted, assaulted, raped and sodomized as had been claimed" and that "the 'unsworn public allegations against Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones' were false and had no basis in fact." Pagones filed a $385 million dollar lawsuit against Brawley and her advisors for twenty-two purported defamatory statements; Mason was found liable of making one defamatory statement and ordered to pay $185,000.
Read more about this topic: C. Vernon Mason
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