Johnny St. Valentine Brown
Johnny St. Valentine Brown | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1943 (age 80–81) |
| Other names | "Jehru" |
| Police career | |
| Country |  United States of America |
| Allegiance |  District of Columbia |
| Department |  Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia |
| Service years | 1970–1999[1] |
| Rank | Detective |
Johnny St. Valentine Brown (also known by the nickname Jehru) was a police detective for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., who served as a chief investigator for a U.S. House committee studying drug trafficking and worked for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He also served as an advisor to Eric Sterling, counsel to the House committee responsible for the drafting of anti-drug laws.[2][3]
Career
As chief investigator and Sterling's advisor, he was instrumental in setting the "100-to-1 crack-to-powder" ratio and other weight-based triggers for sentencing guidelines in the "Len Bias Law" that set much stricter sentencing guidelines for drug offenders.[2] This law was passed in the shocking death of NBA draft pick and college star Len Bias from a cocaine-induced heart attack two days after being drafted by the Boston Celtics. Critics of this law, eventually including Eric Sterling, would go on to say that the weights that Brown suggested ended up targeting low-level offenders instead of mid- to high-level traffickers, as was the original intention of the bill. Critics contend that Brown's "expertise" ended up worsening prison overcrowding and wasting enforcement efforts with low-level offenders.[3]
During the course of his deposition in Butera v. District of Columbia, a case related to the infamous D.C. Starbucks murders, Brown testified under oath as the District's expert witness that he'd earned a doctorate in pharmacology from Howard University in 1972. After the deposition, attorney Saul Jay Singer checked the alleged credentials of the opposing expert. Howard University confirmed to Singer that not only had Brown not obtained any advanced degree from Howard but that, in fact, he had never even attended the university. Singer's instincts that something was off about Brown had been heightened when Brown fell hard for Singer's trap. Consistent with his regular practice in preparing questions for the deposition of an opposing expert witness, Singer fed co-counsel Peter Grenier a nonsensical question to ask Brown: "Have you ever heard of the 'Marijuana Reagent Test?'" In fact, there was no such test, yet Brown testified under oath that not only was he intimately familiar with it, but he had, in fact, personally administered the Marijuana Reagent Test to suspects hundreds of times. In 2000, Brown pleaded guilty to perjury charges for lying about earning an advanced degree from Howard University's School of Pharmacy.[4][5]
During his sentencing, Brown submitted several letters to the sentencing judge, Henry H. Kennedy Jr., in a bid for a more lenient sentence.[2] Letters submitted were from Walter E. Fauntroy (a former D.C. delegate to Congress), Robert Werner (spokesperson for the Office of National Drug Control Policy), William Lucy (a leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), and Johnette Wilson (coordinator of Washington Hospital's youth mentoring program).[4]
After giving Brown a favorable sentence of one year, Kennedy contacted each of the letter-writers to thank them for interest in Brown's case. However, it was learned that Brown had counterfeited each of the letters and the supposed writers were "stunned" to learn of the forgeries. Brown was then charged with contempt of court, for which he received an additional one year in prison, and ordered to stand trial for the forgeries.[4][6]
Brown's conviction triggered the retrial of many convicted drug offenders in the D.C. area.[7]
References
- ^ Cherkis, Jason (July 21, 2000). "False Witness". Washington City Paper. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
- ^ a b c Easley, Jonathan (20 June 2011). "The day the drug war really started". Salon.com. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ^ a b Fraser, Kirk (24 June 2009). "Without Bias". 30 for 30. Event occurs at 44:34. ESPN.
"Eric E. Sterling, Fmr. U.S. Counsel of House Judiciary Committee: Jehru St. Valentine Brown, a metropolitan D.C. narcotics detective, who [had] been detailed to the House [of Representatives'] Narcotics Committee as their Expert Narc, went to prison 'cause he had lied throughout his career under oath about his qualifications. He claimed he had a pharmacy [sic.] degree. He was the man I relied on to get the information that became the basis of these quantity triggers that are the basis of this law [holding a copy of the 1986 Act prescribing mandatory minimum sentences based on quantity]… I was involved in this, and I have met with the family members of hundreds of people who are serving unconscionably long periods of time. This weighs on me a great deal.
- ^ a b c "The Washington Post". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
- ^ Cherkis, Jason (21 July 2000). "False Witness". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ^ Miller, Bill (2001-03-02). "Ex-D.C. Detective Gets One Year for Contempt". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
- ^ "FindLaw's District of Columbia Court of Appeals. case and opinions". Caselaw.findlaw.com. Retrieved 9 December 2021.