Mrs. Brawley to Seek Asylum Inside Church

NEW YORK — Tawana Brawley’s mother will seek asylum in a black church rather than submit to arrest for her refusal to testify before a grand jury investigating her daughter’s disappearance and alleged rape by six white men, her attorneys said today.

“Glenda Brawley will not be appearing before a Dutchess County grand jury tomorrow,” one of the attorneys, Alton Maddox Jr., told reporters. “Glenda Brawley will be seeking relief before a higher authority; she will be putting her life in God’s hands.”

Glenda Brawley was sentenced to 30 days in jail Monday for defying a grand jury subpoena to testify in the case. But state Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams urged authorities to give her one more chance to explain her refusal to cooperate to a judge Wednesday.

Brawley’s family has claimed investigators and state officials are engaged in a racially motivated cover-up.

Maddox refused to say what church would offer Glenda Brawley asylum. But he insisted that the government does not have the right to violate the sanctuary of a church to arrest her for contempt of a grand jury.

Tawana Brawley, 16, was found Nov. 28 lying in a plastic bag in nearby Wappingers Falls. Her hair was cut, animal excrement was smeared on her and racial epithets were scrawled on her body. She said she had been attacked by six white men, including one who flashed a police-like badge.