C. Vernon Mason
C. Vernon Mason (b. Tucker, Arkansas) is an African-American ordained minister and current executive with a non-profit organization. However, he is much more notable as a former lawyer who served as adviser to Tawana Brawley, and ended up having to pay $185,000 for making defamatory public allegations based on Brawley's claims of having been sexually assaulted. Mason was disbarred in 1995, not in connection with the Brawley affair, but for misconduct including "repeated neglect of client matters, many of which concerned criminal cases where a client's liberty was at stake; misrepresentations to clients [and] refusal to refund the unearned portion of fees".[1]
Education
Mason graduated from Morehouse College and earned a Master's in Business Administration from Indiana University. He then graduated from Columbia Law School earning a Juris Doctor and then earned a Master of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary.
Howard Beach incident
Mason was one of the lawyers retained by the family of Michael Griffith, manslaughter victim in the Howard Beach incident.
Tawana Brawley case
In 1987 Mason, along with Alton H. Maddox and Al Sharpton, were advisors to Tawana Brawley, an African-American teenager who claimed to have been abducted and sexually assaulted by at least three white men, including at least one police officer and assistant district attorney Steven Pagones. However, a Grand Jury investigation into Brawley's allegations determined that she "had not been abducted, assaulted, raped and sodomized as had been claimed"[2] and that "the 'unsworn public allegations against Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones' were false and had no basis in fact."[2] Pagones filed a $385 million dollar lawsuit against Brawley and her advisors for twenty-two purported defamatory statments; Mason was found liable of making one defamatory statment and ordered to pay $185,000.[3]
Disbarment
Mason was disbarred in 1995. Contrary to popular belief,[citation needed] the charges on which Mason was disbarred were not connected to the Brawley affair, but rather 66 instances of professional misconduct with 20 clients, most of them African-American[4] and, as the five-judge panel noted, "virtually all the clients were low- or moderate-income persons".[5] However, in December 1997, during the defamation lawsuit, Mason would allege that the court disciplinary committee had been an "an all-white panel" which had "rubber-stamped" the proceedings against him to punish him for the Brawley case.[6]
Christian ministry
The former attorney, is now known as Rev. C. Vernon Mason. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer for the Uth Turn initiative, which provides mentoring, leadership training, educational and job preparation, employment and social services referrals, counseling and substance support to at risk youth.
References
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE5DF113BF934A15752C0A963958260
- ^ a b http://www.nycourts.gov/press/old_keep/brawley.htm
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405E3DE1731F936A25755C0A9679C8B63
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE5DF113BF934A15752C0A963958260
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E7D8153CF933A25751C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E7D8153CF933A25751C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
External links
- The grand jury report on the Brawley case
- A CNN story on the Pagones suit
- Pagones v. Maddox, et al. — Decision of the Supreme Court of New York, County of Duchess
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