Ali Rahman Speaks on Jahiliyah, The Ignorance

Reprint from OTP’s 44-page Evidence Concealed, Now Revealed
award-winning feature published in 1998 About the Tawana Brawley case

(Ali Rahman, a Bronx-based writer-photographer for The New York Beacon, covered the Defamation Trial at Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., for more days than any other African reporter. He offered us the following account of the last day of the trial when five of six jurors fielded questions for a press conference hastily set up for the jury. The jurors felt comfortable with the repartee and recited canned statements until Ali started questioning their literacy.)
This was supposed to be a press conference. The jury was finally facing the press. It tried to be a sequence from “Happy Day!” or American Teen Hop, but for me, it was a satirical take on “Scream!” Five of the six jurors were present. Althea L. Williams, the black woman whom we are told almost came to blows with juror Mark J. Urbin, was absent. The lady has class. Why would she want to hang around fans — groupies — of Steven Pagones. The jurors delivered their acceptance speeches and revealed — as Susan the alternate juror said — “how it was so difficult to reach a fair decision (on the punitive damages).”

Mr. and Mrs. Africa, would you believe that the jury —with the exception of the sister who didn’t go along with their confused program — who sat for eight months going over thousands of pages of evidence in the defamation trial against Alton H. Maddox, C. Vernon Mason, and The Rev. Al Sharpton based their defamation/punitive decisions on elementary school GRAMMAR!
My brothers and sisters, my common folk of the thinking world, read my lips: The decision .. was … based …on …demonstrative …pronouns … in the so-called … English language like, “This, those, these, and that!”
But we will get to that later.
At the opening of the conference, I was stunned that the press lapped up the pabulum. The jury read their statements. This was not a press conference. This was a fairy tale.
But the truth had to get through.
This brother couldn’t sit there and let them get away with it. I was hot! Steamed! We sat in this stuffy courtroom all those months, they heard what those lawyers said, and still, they come back with a verdict of $345,000 which should have been zero. Somebody had to tell me something!
“You reached this verdict with all this evidence. What about Tawana Brawley, all that medical evidence …?
Juror Glen “with-one-”n” tried to pollute the atmosphere with his smokescreen: “Oh, you want to talk about racism!” This reporter cut him off and said, “I’m not talking about racism — Let’s focus. Just answer the question! You folks based your decision on grammar?”

“Yes!” they all acknowledged. (Explanation: they were confused in the read-backs by such words as a semicolon and dot dot dot.)
“Question. Did you examine Tawana Brawley’s records?”
Their reply: “Tawana’s records did not have any bearing on this case.”
Glen, who was the definitive leader-spokesmen of these “grand” jurors, said, “I just love Rev. Al Sharpton. I wish him well.” He also said that Rev. Sharpton should keep on doing what he’s doing.
“This case was about defamation,” I pressured them some more. “Look, I have a victim, who was raped, sodomized and kidnapped: Tawana Brawley.”
Glen said, “I know Steve did not do it and Harry Crist did commit suicide.”
I asked, “How did you reach that conclusion?” “The suicide note,” Glen replied. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Africa, the so-called suicide note, mentioned in the Grand Jury report, has never been produced!
Cody, the jury foreman, asks me, “Why didn’t Tawana go to a local police station and tell her story? Why didn’t Tawana Brawley come to this trial?”
These questions gave me pause, just long enough to reflect on what Mr. Maddox said, during his defamation trial closing remarks. He said, “They put blinders on mules to guide them.”
I decide to be calm: “Tawana Brawley did tell her story. On November 30, 1987, to the Dutchess County Sheriff’s office, the D.A.s office and the FBI.” (As it was spelled out over and over in this trial.)
Remember how Glen loved Sharpton so much that he charged him $65,000 in punitive damages? Well, when he’s asked about Sharpton’s testimony, Glen says, “could not understand what Sharpton was talking about on the witness stand.”
When other reporters ask “How did you reach that figure, the jurors said it was the Sliding Rule explanation: “We divided six and divided into a figure and arrived at $345,000.” It was nothing definitive. They seemed to make up the answer the way they came up with the figure.

During all of this, Steven Pagones tries to disrupt the press conference. When I kept pressing for the questions on Tawana Brawley. He said off the cuff, they already came to that.” Glen, the juror said to me, “You’re trying to retry the case.”
This reporter told Pagones, “Listen Steven I never disrespected you, throughout this whole trial, so don’t disrespect me. I’m asking questions at this press conference and you can’t control me or this.” Pagones backed off and smirked.
The last thing I told Pagones was to “go home and pray” in the presence of his wife, his sister, and his father. His sister responded, “He always prays. Every night.” I said, “Well, that’s very good!” Then, I told Steve, “Your problem is, you like to argue too much. No go home and pray! “His sister, who was present with their father, the former judge and Steve’s wife, said. “That is what he does, every night.” I said, “Yes? Then maybe God will bless you.
This jury was more than an insult. Throughout the press conference the jurors echoed over and over, “Let’s start the healing process. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was a town that said, “Whatever Stevie wants, Stevie gets.” And they gave it over to him, the steak, the store, the whole 9 yards, as Maddox said in his summation.
Over and over again, this jury kept referring to Pagones as Steve. “It was Steve who did not want us to overcharge the three defendants,” said juror Mike. This reporter countered, “Well, if Steve really wanted $395 million dollars, I suppose you would have given it to him!”
I asked about the fighting behind closed doors. Their response: “Well, we don’t want to talk about that now. We are family.”
Outside the press conference, a 1010 WINS reporter asked, “Do you think this teaches them, Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason a lesson?” Stanton responded, “Oh, yes, absolutely, I don’t think you will hear them speaking about Steven Pagones, again.”
The jury — with the exception of sister Althea who tried to get as far away from them as she could (remember, she did not sign the verdict sheet) was shameless. It was a pile of mule manure masquerading as civilized human beings. My mother used to say, don’t urinate in my face, and tell me it’s raining. That’s what these Mayberries did. And the sad thing is…they got away with it.