Letter To Wickham
Replacement of earlier Wickham letter
ALTON H. MADDOX, JR. TELEPHONE: 718-834-9034
FAX: 718-834-1275
16 COURT STREET, SUITE 1901
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11241
April 25, 2006
DeWayne Wickham
USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22108-0605
Dear DeWayne Wickham:
I was the chief counsel for Tawana Brawley until May 1990. In your “Race and sex cast long shadow over Duke” op-ed piece in the April 18, 2006 edition of USA Today, you falsely make accusations against Tawana Brawley. Your false premise is that Tawana “concocted a story about being abducted and sexually abused by some white racists.” You conclude that her “hoax hangs over the Duke case like a badly mildewed rug.”
History, for the past 400 years, is replete with instances of white women falsely accusing Black males of raping them in the United States. In each instance, a white mob performed a public ritual including dismemberment of limbs and castration. Finally, the neck was stretched. This is more than a lynching. It is terrorism and it is designed to cause pain and suffering to an entire Black population.
Today, when a white woman accuses a Black person of rape, nobody revives the history of white, female accusers to question the accuser. On the other hand, you are promoting racial stereotyping against Black women. The judicial system and the media detach a white woman’s complaint from history. Racial stereotyping will come into play, however, if the suspect is a Black male.
In the Brawley case, there is a public record that can be found at the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie, NY. It will show that a petit jury of five white persons and one Black person favored my accusation that Steven Pagones, an assistant district attorney in Dutchess County, was involved in the kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley. The enthymeme in this 1998 verdict is that something happened to her criminally.
A grand juror in the Brawley investigation gave me an affidavit on September 11, 2000 in Idaho showing that the grand jury never accused Tawana of committing a “hoax.” In fact, in violation of Article 190 of New York Criminal Procedure Law, the special prosecutor, Robert Abrams, and not the grand jury, wrongfully wrote the grand jury report.
To make matters worse, no quorum was present under New York law to even approve the bogus grand jury report written by Abrams. These undenied claims raise serious ethical and criminal concerns. Since these suspects are attorneys, there should at least be a disciplinary investigation.
The suspects also include former Governor Mario Cuomo and current New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer who refuses to disclose state-sponsored crimes anchored in the Brawley files. You should use your column to demand that Spitzer publicize, unredacted, the entire Brawley file since her accusation is supposed to be a “hoax.”
Tawana also fingered Harry Crist, Jr., a white police officer in Dutchess County and Pagones’ close friend. In 1988, Abrams claimed that Crist’s death was a suicide. I publicly stated that Crist was murdered. Abrams suppressed the autopsy report and encouraged Pagones to sue me for defaming Crist. Under tort law, even an estate has no claim for defamation.
During the defamation trial, I was finally able to pry the autopsy report from the files in the possession of the state attorney general’s office. The autopsy report lists homicide as the manner of Crist’s death. Someone had blown out his brains. This is a state-sponsored cover-up.
Dr. Alexander Aplasca, who authored the autopsy report, testified for the first time at the defamation trial. Abrams had never talked to him. He never received any evidence, from the police, supporting a claim of a suicide. Instead, Abrams paid Dr. Michael Baden to testify that the manner of death was suicide without possessing any supporting evidence.
The New York Times reported in 1988 that Crist had placed a .357 caliber Magnum to Pagones’ head and threatened to pull the trigger. In his deposition, Pagones never denied this report. New York has no statute of limitations for murder but a criminal investigation into Crist’s death was suppressed ab initio.
You also accused Rev. Al Sharpton of providing inflammatory support to Tawana. Today, Sharpton has chosen to become a punching bag for white supremacists. His converted role started at least in late 1987 when he and I, along with Spitzer, appeared on the late Johnnie Cochran’s Court-TV program.
Spitzer publicly advised Sharpton to stay away from his own upcoming, defamation trial. This was supposed to be a signal to the jury of non-support for Tawana. Sharpton complied. Spitzer wanted a complete victory for Pagones. This strategy for Sharpton to accommodate whites contributed to the petit jury’s conclusion that Sharpton had made false accusations against Pagones.
Sharpton has since refused to implicate Pagones in the kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley. This should make him your hero. I am certain that you will never investigate the Brawley case objectively and honestly report your findings. Instead, you have also chosen to be a tool of white supremacy by making false accusations against a teenager.
Very truly yours,
Alton H. Maddox, Jr.
AHM:sr
ALTON H. MADDOX, JR. TELEPHONE: 718-834-9034
FAX: 718-834-1275
16 COURT STREET, SUITE 1901
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11241
April 25, 2006
DeWayne Wickham
USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22108-0605
Dear DeWayne Wickham:
I was the chief counsel for Tawana Brawley until May 1990. In your “Race and sex cast long shadow over Duke” op-ed piece in the April 18, 2006 edition of USA Today, you falsely make accusations against Tawana Brawley. Your false premise is that Tawana “concocted a story about being abducted and sexually abused by some white racists.” You conclude that her “hoax hangs over the Duke case like a badly mildewed rug.”
History, for the past 400 years, is replete with instances of white women falsely accusing Black males of raping them in the United States. In each instance, a white mob performed a public ritual including dismemberment of limbs and castration. Finally, the neck was stretched. This is more than a lynching. It is terrorism and it is designed to cause pain and suffering to an entire Black population.
Today, when a white woman accuses a Black person of rape, nobody revives the history of white, female accusers to question the accuser. On the other hand, you are promoting racial stereotyping against Black women. The judicial system and the media detach a white woman’s complaint from history. Racial stereotyping will come into play, however, if the suspect is a Black male.
In the Brawley case, there is a public record that can be found at the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie, NY. It will show that a petit jury of five white persons and one Black person favored my accusation that Steven Pagones, an assistant district attorney in Dutchess County, was involved in the kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley. The enthymeme in this 1998 verdict is that something happened to her criminally.
A grand juror in the Brawley investigation gave me an affidavit on September 11, 2000 in Idaho showing that the grand jury never accused Tawana of committing a “hoax.” In fact, in violation of Article 190 of New York Criminal Procedure Law, the special prosecutor, Robert Abrams, and not the grand jury, wrongfully wrote the grand jury report.
To make matters worse, no quorum was present under New York law to even approve the bogus grand jury report written by Abrams. These undenied claims raise serious ethical and criminal concerns. Since these suspects are attorneys, there should at least be a disciplinary investigation.
The suspects also include former Governor Mario Cuomo and current New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer who refuses to disclose state-sponsored crimes anchored in the Brawley files. You should use your column to demand that Spitzer publicize, unredacted, the entire Brawley file since her accusation is supposed to be a “hoax.”
Tawana also fingered Harry Crist, Jr., a white police officer in Dutchess County and Pagones’ close friend. In 1988, Abrams claimed that Crist’s death was a suicide. I publicly stated that Crist was murdered. Abrams suppressed the autopsy report and encouraged Pagones to sue me for defaming Crist. Under tort law, even an estate has no claim for defamation.
During the defamation trial, I was finally able to pry the autopsy report from the files in the possession of the state attorney general’s office. The autopsy report lists homicide as the manner of Crist’s death. Someone had blown out his brains. This is a state-sponsored cover-up.
Dr. Alexander Aplasca, who authored the autopsy report, testified for the first time at the defamation trial. Abrams had never talked to him. He never received any evidence, from the police, supporting a claim of a suicide. Instead, Abrams paid Dr. Michael Baden to testify that the manner of death was suicide without possessing any supporting evidence.
The New York Times reported in 1988 that Crist had placed a .357 caliber Magnum to Pagones’ head and threatened to pull the trigger. In his deposition, Pagones never denied this report. New York has no statute of limitations for murder but a criminal investigation into Crist’s death was suppressed ab initio.
You also accused Rev. Al Sharpton of providing inflammatory support to Tawana. Today, Sharpton has chosen to become a punching bag for white supremacists. His converted role started at least in late 1987 when he and I, along with Spitzer, appeared on the late Johnnie Cochran’s Court-TV program.
Spitzer publicly advised Sharpton to stay away from his own upcoming, defamation trial. This was supposed to be a signal to the jury of non-support for Tawana. Sharpton complied. Spitzer wanted a complete victory for Pagones. This strategy for Sharpton to accommodate whites contributed to the petit jury’s conclusion that Sharpton had made false accusations against Pagones.
Sharpton has since refused to implicate Pagones in the kidnapping and rape of Tawana Brawley. This should make him your hero. I am certain that you will never investigate the Brawley case objectively and honestly report your findings. Instead, you have also chosen to be a tool of white supremacy by making false accusations against a teenager.
Very truly yours,
Alton H. Maddox, Jr.
AHM:sr
posted by Attorney Alton Maddox at 2:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home