Editing Al Sharpton (section)

===Tawana Brawley rape case===
{{Main|Tawana Brawley rape allegations}}
[[File:Al Sharpton to David Shankbone on whether he is tired of hearing about Tawana Brawley.ogg|thumb|Al Sharpton interviewed in 2007 on whether he is tired of hearing about Tawana Brawley 20 years later]]

On November 28, 1987, Tawana Brawley, a 15-year-old black girl, was found smeared with [[feces]], lying in a garbage bag, her clothing torn and burned and with various slurs and epithets written on her body in charcoal.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/tawana-brawley-rape-allegations-sparks-racial-strife-1987-article-1.2445708|title=Tawana Brawley alleges being raped after she was found in a trash bag in 1987|website=New York Daily News|date=November 27, 2015 }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite magazine |last=Sherman |first=Scott |date=March 30, 2001 |title=He Has a Dream |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/he-has-dream/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707082300/https://www.thenation.com/article/he-has-dream/ |archive-date=July 7, 2019 |url-status=dead |magazine=[[The Nation]] |access-date=July 7, 2019}}</ref> Brawley claimed she had been assaulted and [[rape]]d by six white men, some of them police officers, in the town of [[Wappinger, New York]].<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/booming/revisiting-the-tawana-brawley-rape-scandal.html|title=Revisiting a Rape Scandal That Would Have Been Monstrous if True|first=Michael|last=Winerip|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 3, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tawana-brawley-hoax_n_3709058|title=Woman Who Created Rape Hoax Forced to Pay Damages|date=August 5, 2013|website=HuffPost}}</ref>

Attorneys [[Alton H. Maddox]] and [[C. Vernon Mason]] joined Sharpton in support of Brawley. A [[grand jury]] was convened; after seven months of examining police and medical records, the jury found "overwhelming evidence" that Brawley had fabricated her story.<ref name="Evidence Points">{{cite news |title=Evidence Points to Deceit by Brawley |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/27/nyregion/evidence-points-to-deceit-by-brawley.html?pagewanted=all |work=[[The New York Times]] |quote=A seven-month New York State grand jury inquiry has compiled overwhelming evidence that Tawana Brawley fabricated her story of abduction and sexual abuse by a gang of racist white men last year, according to investigators, witnesses and official summaries of evidence presented to the panel. |date=September 27, 1988 |access-date=January 20, 2008}}</ref> Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason had accused the [[Dutchess County, New York|Dutchess County]] prosecutor, [[Steven Pagones]], of racism and of being one of the perpetrators of the alleged abduction and rape. The three were successfully sued for defamation, and were ordered to pay $345,000 in damages, with the jury finding Sharpton liable for making seven defamatory statements about Pagones, Maddox for two, and Mason for one.<ref name=cnn-1998-01-14>{{cite news |title=Winner in Brawley suit says victory is bittersweet |date=January 14, 1998 |url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/13/brawley.verdict.02/ |work=CNN|access-date=April 6, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070320025016/http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/13/brawley.verdict.02/ |archive-date=March 20, 2007}}</ref> Sharpton refused to pay his share of the damages; it was later paid by a number of black business leaders including [[Johnnie Cochran]].<ref name=closet>{{cite news|title=The skeletons and suits in Sharpton's closet |url=http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/06/20/sharpton/index.html?pn=2 |work=Salon |access-date=April 6, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418001602/http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/06/20/sharpton/index.html?pn=2 |archive-date=April 18, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

Sharpton said in 2007 that if he had it to do over again, he might have not attacked Pagones personally, but would otherwise have handled the Brawley case the same way. He added: "I disagreed with the grand jury on Brawley. I believed there was enough evidence to go to trial. Grand jury said there wasn't. Okay, fine. Do I have a right to disagree with the grand jury? Many Americans believe [[O. J. Simpson]] was guilty. A jury said he wasn't. So I have as much right to question a jury as they do. Does it make somebody a racist? No! They just disagreed with the jury. So did I."<ref name=DS>[[n:Al Sharpton speaks out on race, rights and what bothers him about his critics|Interview with Al Sharpton]], David Shankbone, ''[[Wikinews]]'', December 3, 2007.</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=May 2020}}

Michael Hardy, who served as defense lawyer for Sharpton in Pagones' defamation case against him, would becoming a key founding member of [[National Action Network]], serving as Executive Vice President and later also becoming General Counsel in 2008.<ref name=sharptonlawyerandrighthandman>{{cite news|url=https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2024/07/22/national-action-network-general-counsel-evp-michael-hardy-dies-sharpton/|title=Longtime National Action Network EVP and General Counsel Michael Hardy, Esq. passes away|publisher=New York Amsterdam News|date=July 22, 2024|accessdate=July 25, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/25/us/michael-hardy-dead.html|title=Michael Hardy, Sharpton's Longtime Lawyer and Confidant, Dies at 69|first=Sam|last=Roberts|work=New York Times|date=July 25, 2024|accessdate=July 25, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://nationalactionnetwork.net/staff/michael-a-hardy/|title=Michael A. Hardy, Esq.|publisher=National Action Network|accessdate=July 25, 2024}}</ref> Hardy served with Sharpton's organization until his death in July 2024.<ref name=sharptonlawyerandrighthandman />