The Rev Al Sharpton, New York's most controversial black rights activist, this week suffered a massive setback in his dream to be elected the city's mayor when he and two of his former advisers were found guilty of defaming a young prosecutor by accusing him of a rape he did not commit, writes Joanna Coles.
The Reverend - model for the rabble-rousing Reverend Bacon in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities - insisted he would appeal against the verdict.
After an extraordinarily bitter eight-month trial in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, the jury found that Mr Sharpton, Alton Maddox and C. Vernon Mason had recklessly defamed Steven Pagones by stating that he had orchestrated the kidnap, gang-rape and sodomy of a 15-year-old black girl, Tawana Brawley.
The Brawley case split the United States along racial lines after Tawana disappeared from her home in November 1987. She returned, four days later, claiming to have been abducted and raped by "white cops".
Three months later, with a police investigation making no progress, Mr Sharpton publicly accused Mr Pagones of leading a gang rape because Ms Brawley had once pointed to his face in a local paper. Mr Pagones always denied the charges. Eight months later a grand jury exonerated him completely.
Mr Sharpton continued to repeat his accusations, and yesterday he said he would continue to fight for the truth.
The trial cost Mr Pagones $300,000 in legal fees and his job in the district attorney's office, after it was decided the publicity of the trial would harm his office.