Tawana Brawley: Case vs. Cause

(2 of 2)

Blacks are not unanimously grateful for the attention. Along with whites, they remember that Mason unsuccessfully challenged Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau at the polls three years ago, and some suspect that the lawyers are not above advancing their personal ambitions. Moderates of all races have winced at reports that Mason and Maddox have established ties with the fiery black Muslim Louis Farrakhan.

Few could have failed to notice that for all the furor they have raised, the Brawley advisers have hardly helped solve whatever crimes were committed against Tawana Brawley. Wrote New York Daily News Columnist Bob Herbert, who is black: "If Robert Abrams or anybody else wants to send somebody to the slammer for contempt of court, Glenda Brawley has three high-profile advisers who more than qualify."

Unfortunately, little useful information has been added to the story that Tawana Brawley told last November about being abducted on a dark road and held in the woods for four days by a gang of white men. Journalists subsequently < turned up discrepancies in the Brawley family's sketchy accounts of Tawana's absence. Witnesses reported seeing her at parties in a nearby town. Neighbors told of Tawana's prior disappearances and of violent conflicts between mother and daughter. Mason, Maddox and Sharpton subsequently tossed out casual accusations that Tawana's rapists included a Dutchess County assistant district attorney, a state trooper and a part-time policeman who shot himself to death days after the alleged gang rape. Local, state and federal investigators have found no evidence for their charges.

So while the Brawley cause has prospered, the Brawley case has got nowhere. Attorney General Abrams declared at week's end that unless the Brawleys turn about and tell what they know, the "investigation is not going to succeed." Given the prospect of thwarted justice, it was hard to argue with the view expressed by Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins, who also is black, about Glenda Brawley's new status as a fugitive. "I don't think any purpose would be served by locking up the mother," he said. "The rule of law is important, but this is a unique and strange situation."