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In 2001 business moguls paid off an outstanding $87,000 judgment Al Sharpton owed for slandering a citizen. Sharpton falsely accused a man of raping a teen girl. The man he accused was white, the girl was black.
3/23/2001, "Rev. Al Is Grateful For Legal Bailout," NY Daily News, Emily Gest
"A subdued Rev. Al Sharpton told the Daily News yesterday he was honored that local African-American business moguls had stepped forward to help him pay the $87,000 judgment he owed in the Tawana Brawley slander case.
"I'm humbled and honored that people as prominent and influential as this would come in and show that my work has warranted their support," Sharpton said in a telephone interview.
The money is owed to former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones, who won a defamation suit against Sharpton and others in 1998. They had accused him of raping Brawley in 1987, when she was 15.
Sharpton said yesterday he was relieved to no longer be "harassed or distracted by the judgment" and stood by his beliefs about Pagones in the Brawley case.
To help the activist pay off the judgment, Percy Sutton, chairman emeritus of Harlem-based Inner City Technologies, solicited donations from his son, ICT Chairman Pierre Sutton; Black Enterprise magazine chairman Earl Graves; Essence Magazine publisher Ed Lewis,
- and lawyer Johnnie Cochran....
Before the collection, Sharpton's wages had been garnisheed to satisfy about 10% of the judgment, according to Caryn Blaustein, one of Pagones' lawyers.
While Pagones welcomed the payment, he said he was upset that Sharpton "is having others take over the burden."
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