Alton H. Maddox

Alton Henry Maddox, Jr. (born 1945) is an African-American lawyer who was involved in several high profile civil rights cases in the 1980s. He is still a practicing attorney in the state of Georgia.

Maddox was born in Newnan, Georgia. He began practicing law in 1976, after graduating from Howard University and Boston College Law School.

Maddox represented several proven and alleged crime victims including the family of Michael Stewart, a Brooklyn man who died while in custody of the New York City Transit Police. Six officers were indicted for the death; all were found not guilty. Rudy Giuliani, then US Attorney in Manhattan, found insufficient evidence to warrant a federal grand jury investigation. A Metropolitan Transportation Authority report later faulted police for use of excessive force.

He was the attorney for Cedric Sandiford and the family of manslaughter victim Michael Griffith in the Howard Beach incident. Maddox and other lawyers demanded a special prosecutor be appointed to the case, and the request was eventually granted. Maddox accused the New York City Police Department and Commissioner Benjamin Ward of a cover-up.

He represented Tawana Brawley during the period of her rape allegations. Maddox and two other Brawley advisers accused Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones of abducting and raping Brawley. A grand jury exonerated Pagones and suggested that Brawley had concocted a hoax. Pagones sued Brawley and the three advisers for $395 million for twenty two alleged defamatory statements. A jury awarded Pagones a total of $345,000 in damages, with Maddox being found liable for $95,000 for two defamatory statements.

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