An anonymous packet arrived in my mailbox today. The cover letter summarized a litany of citations for a "T. Michael Brown." The letter goes on to say that this individual is the same T. Michael Brown who is running for Commissioner in Ward 1 of Mt. Lebanon. I have scanned all the documentation and am presenting it here. T. Michael Brown Dockets Do these documents belong to the same municipal candidate, T. Michael Brown?
Update September 9, 2011 10:47 a.m. More information has surfaced. These are criminal dockets from the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
Update September 9, 2011 1:41 p.m. This was just sent to me. Brown Someone did his or her homework before letting me know about it.
Update September 10, 2011 6:35 p.m. T. Michael Brown nomination petitions
29 comments:
I am considering accepting anonymous comments for this thread. If appropriate, I will post it.
The nature of this topic is a delicate matter. Thank you for making an exception to your standard policy. Through an online search for obstruction highways, it may be considered as loitering, public nuisance, blocking a public passage or it is abbreviated for Obstruction of Highway Related to Prostitution.
With a name as common as Mr. Brown's, this individual knew where to look, if it is the same T. Michael Brown. Mr. Brown needs to address this and clear his name if it is false information.
I am not an attorney, so I don't know what obstruction highways means.
Elaine
I am not sure what the point of posting all of these is. Most look like speeding tickets. As for the others, I hope people spend the time to read the entire document because some were dismissed or withdrawn. I do think he needs to explain the obstructing Highway (No idea what that is), and the trespass. But again not sure why the need to post a bunch of speeding tickets.
I scanned the entire packet and didn't feel that I should sort through the citations.
Elaine
Anonymous, are you saying it is the same T. Michael Brown? I was hoping he would say that it is someone else.
Elaine
Brown didn't file any campaign finance reports with Allegheny County.
Okay tickets are tickets I suppose.
But just wondering- what number of arrests for things like assault, harassment and theft are too many when electing someone to office? Is he actually still involved with the court system? I would want to know that. Its not like he was 17 when he was arrested or something. This guy should be overseeing the police?
He should just let the public know on here or his own site about whether or not this is actually him. If it is then I think he should remove himself from the ballot. If it is not him then this blog should be sure to promote that as well.
I would definitely promote that. I don't want an innocent man be falsely accused.
Elaine
This is just plain old muck raking. You're better than this, E.T.G. !!
Well thank you, Mr. or Ms. Anonymous.
Are you saying that this is dirty tricks? That is ridiculous. You can say that this criminal history is not an issue when you vote. The documents were sent to me. I am not making this stuff up. I certainly didn't trick him into getting arrested a few times. And if it isn't the same guy, nobody has stepped forward to say that, including him.
Elaine
Guilty until proven innocent! The E.T. Gillen way! The responsible thing to do would have been to contact Mr. Brown's campaign to verify if these charges were in deed true. It is hard to put the cat back in the bag if it turns out it is not him.
I am going ask the question again. Is this the same T. Michael Brown?
Did someone say he is guilty?
Sure on your blog you would have sent it to the campaign for comment first. If he responds to you please pass on the answer.
The questions remain: Has Michael Brown been arrested several times in the last couple of years for assault and theft and if so, should he be elected as a commissioner?
If the answer for you is a yes, thats fine. For me it is
definite no!
So Mr. Brown- is this you or not?
Yes, Anonymous, the E.T. Gillen way usually involves spinning it and turning me into the issue. I just posted some pretty incriminating evidence. Someone certainly did his or her homework. Elaine
Yes, it is incriminating. And by your own admission not necessarily the Mr. Brown in question. That is where the problem lies. Before you accuse someone of something, you should be positive you have the correct person. Sure, it's your blog and you can decide what to print. It is interesting, however, that you find it acceptable to present this type of information but no one can ever call you out on it.
It has the guy's address, but OK, you are never going to buy it. That is your right.
Elaine
How many Thomas Michael Browns born in 1948 lived on Meadowcroft in 2008?
Why are you posting this B.S., Elaine? Didn't you lose the primary election last May (to the Republicans) and now you have an axe to grind? Everyone has a "little past" in their closet, except you, I guess.
If it has his address, they why not come out and say it is him. You have asked at least two times if it is him.
I actually don't care if it is him or not. I am a former Lebo citizen living out - of - state who follows the Lebo blogs to keep up with what is going on. I was appalled that a blog with a good reputation for getting to the bottom of issues would stoop to such a level.
Now wait just a second.
Elaine posts some examples of questionably plagiarized material on her website. All the documents were public. She simply draws everything together and asks a question. In that case, the question is: these are the chosen actions and deeds of the school board president - are these actions and deeds wrong?
There was no question of who was responsible for the actions, then, just whether there was wrongdoing.
In this case, similarly - public documents are posted and a question is raised.
There isn't any established proof of whether this person is even the right guy. But you're accusing her of declaring guilt?
Where is that coming from?
The fact of the matter is - this was all already public information. It's just that the information age makes this material ubiquitous with astonishing ease. That's a fact of modern living. Anyone living in denial of such is going to find themselves rudely surprised over and over.
Accordingly, I don't really see it as necessary for Elaine, or a newspaper, or anyone with an interest in public affairs to have to be discreet on behalf of the campaignee.
Instead, I would say that it's requisite due diligence for a campaignee to either:
a) be prepared to acknowledge the skeletons in the closet (because the closet has wifi access)
or
b) perform this exact same kind of research on their own, in advance, to have a prepared statement in the event of any potentially questionable material.
I fully expect that if you Google "Matt C. Wilson" - you'll find out all about me. As such, anyone on the internet really needs to understand that public means public.
If you really want to scare yourself, roll the dice with Intelius or any other paid background check website.
Heck, go hit up Pipl - it's free, and if you have an uncommon name you'll probably have a modest heart attack at how much data is on you.
Like it or not - there should be little expectation of privacy on the internet. Sorry to say it, but you anonymous guys especially should know that it's giving you a false sense of security. The means exist to identify you, signature or not. Might as well embrace it and join the public discourse in full notoriety.
Yeah. Busted. I have an ax to grind.
Check the updates. The address wasn't in the first batch of information.
So now, I am really going out on a limb here, Folks. After seeing the last update, it is safe to say that it is the same T. Michael Brown. His SSN was whited out, but I am sure that people would have wanted me to publish that too.
Anyone else not really care how the info came about!?!?!?
Is it the right guy or not?!?
Because it now seems that he MAY like to drag women from cars...!?!
PLEASE tell me its not him. PLEASE tell me that we don't have a person running for office who leaves 10 inch marks on women after dragging them from a car!
This isn't a skeleton in a closet- the incidents are just a couple years old!
This is unbelievable!
With respect to public information available on the Internet, Mr. Wilson is 100% correct. My opinion is that people sometimes confuse public information with classified information held by a public agency, such as the Department of Defense, the CIA, etc. If Ms. Gillen had published classified information concerning one “T. Michael Brown” she might expect a knock on her door soon – or more likely her door knocked down in the middle of the night.
People may debate the propriety of publishing old, public information about a political candidate, but the very fact that the topic is being broached in the open and accessible to anyone in the world with a computer and an Internet account speaks volumes about freedom and the free-flow of ideas.
Richard Gideon
PS: To the Anonymous posters: Think about what you want to say; take a day if necessary to permit your blood pressure to drop; then post your comments and show some courage by signing your real name. You'll gain the respect of others – even those opposed to you – and yourself as well.
"Heck of a job, Brownie!"
-George W. Bush
Republican
As I recall Elaine, you were not an endorsed Republican candidate. Raja, DeIulius, and Brown were. That sounds like grounds to celebrate.
Funny how things work out. Clearly, I wasn't in their league. Believe me, no ax to grind. Just relief that I could continue this blog to be "a consistent critic of the District."
Elaine
Does the MTL Republican Committee even exist in MTL any more???
On top of the Brown issue here, two republican school board members are endorsing the democratic candidates for the commission and SB, the Ward 3 R candidate may not even live in the ward he's running for next year and
the committee's website hasn't been updated for months!
Raja is still listed as Ward 1 commissioner.
Could one group possibly be more out of touch with needs of the community and mentally and morally bankrupt???
;-)
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