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 The
Associated Press Tawana Brawley flanked by Alton H. Maddox Jr.and her stepfather,
Ralph King addresses a crowd of supporters at a Brooklyn rally last night.
“I’m not a
liar”
By JOSH MARGOLIN Staff Writer
NEW YORK -- Deep in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant last night, Tawana
Brawley broke a decade of silence.
“It happened to me, and I’m not a liar,” she told a jam- packed church.
“I’m not crazy.”
Back in 1987, she claimed a group of white law enforcement officers abducted her, raped
her and left her, smeared with feces, in a plastic bag. She was 15 and living in
Wappingers Falls. A special grand jury called the story a hoax, but that wasn’t the
end.
Brawley, now 25, hadn’t spoken publicly about her story for nearly 10 years. She
hadn’t responded to official reports that called her a liar. She said she had tried
to go about her life. Today, she reportedly lives in Washington, D.C., and uses the Muslim
name Maryam Muhammad. She said she was “scared” to return to New York.
She said last night, “I was ashamed of what happened to me.” For 15 minutes, she
told hundreds of people over and over that her story is true.
“What happened to me happens to hundreds of thousands of women every day,” she
said.
Brawley’s appearance, the night before the civil trial in the defamation lawsuit
against Brawley’s three advisors, resembled a pep rally.
Brawley said she stepped back into the limelight to support her advisers, especially
disbarred lawyer Alton Maddox, who introduced her last night. After years of motions and
legal maneuvers, the civil trial against them is scheduled to begin this morning in
Poughkeepsie.
“The hour has come for the return of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth,” Maddox
said, introducing Brawley.
She stood at the podium, blowing kisses and waving. She also said she was
“overwhelmed” by the number of people at the church.
But the church itself was not new to her. Brawley became very familiar with the Bethany
Baptist Church in 1987 and 1988. It was there that her mother, Glenda, holed up for nearly
40 days as she evaded a grand jury summons. It was at Bethany that Maddox and the other
two advisers, the Rev. Al Sharpton and disbarred lawyer C. Vernon Mason, set up their
headquarters to fight for Brawley.
When Glenda Brawley was camped out at Bethany, the church was turned into a fortress. The
doors were guarded by bow tie-wearing Sharpton operatives, and rumors swirled that lawmen
were readying to storm the building. But that never happened.
The church still has the feel of a fortress, with its classic architecture. And Bethany
was again surrounded last night, but this time news crews and cops encircled the enormous
church.
Glenda wasn’t at the dais last night, but Brawley’s father was. And she herself
was surrounded by a gaggle of tough-looking guys. She spoke for 15 minutes to an
enthusiastic audience filled mainly with supporters.
Outside the church, there were still blacks who don’t quite buy Brawley’s story.
“She was lying,” said 20-year-old William Wonders,cq who was working at a
Laundromat across from the church last night. Wonders said there has to be a reason she
did it, and he’d like to know what it is.
Brawley claimed that law enforcement paid off phony witnesses to paint her as a liar in
1988.
“For 10 years, they’ve been lying to you,” she said. “You should feel
that hoax was pulled on you.”
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