Right to left, Mason, Muddox, and Sharpton

POUGHKEEPSIE, New York (CNN) -- A jury Monday found three advisers to Tawana Brawley liable on 11 counts of defamation in a lawsuit filed by former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones.

The jury will now decide how much to award Pagones in damages.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, Alton Maddox and C. Vernon Mason, who were found liable, were also found not liable for a total of 11 statements they made in the case of Tawana Brawley, a black teen-ager who said she gang-raped by white men in November 1987.

Pagones said the three men defamed him by publicly calling him a rapist at least 30 times.

The defendants had acted as advisers to Brawley, who in 1987 at the age of 15 said she had been abducted and raped by six white men. The case inflamed racial tensions in New York but a year later a state grand jury found the case was a hoax. All six men, including Pagones, were exonerated.

Sharpton was not present when the verdicts were read but his lawyers appeared glum during the lengthy reading. Pagones was jubilant, but called the decision "bittersweet," because of the time and expense involved in bringing the case.

The six-member jury had been deliberating since Wednesday in the protracted case, which dragged on for seven months and was characterized by outbursts, delays and continuous legal wrangling by the defense.

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