Donald Glenn Brown
Posted on 06/10/2023 11:36:25 PM PDT by Migraine
HOLBROOK — Threats of death toward state Sen. Wendy Rogers from last year were met with prison time Tuesday for a Tucson man.
Donald Brown was sentenced to 2½ years in prison in Navajo County Superior Court in Holbrook. The sentencing came after Brown entered a guilty plea on April 6 for attempting to make a terroristic threat, a class 4 felony.
Brown sent an email to Trumped Store owners Steven and Karen Slaton on July 4 threatening to kill Rogers, who came to Show Low for the Fourth of July parade. In the email, Brown used an alias and claimed to be parked close to the Trumped Store with two AR15s.
In his email, Brown said he would blow Rogers’ head off and further threatened to shoot up the store.
Brown appeared to be somber while Navajo County Superior Court Judge Joseph Clark delivered his sentence.
Steven Slaton delivered a statement to the court, saying the threats made by Brown to take lives due to political differences cannot be tolerated in a free society. In his statement, Slaton called on the court to punish Brown “to the fullest extent of the law.
“Mr. Brown needs to pay for the consequences of his actions,” he said. He continued by saying that if Brown were to not serve prison time for the threats he made, it would send a message to people that it’s acceptable to threaten to take lives because of political disagreements.
Karen Slaton also addressed the court and read the email that Brown sent on July 4. The email was filled with vulgar, graphic and threatening language.
Rogers then delivered a statement to the court. She was evacuated from Show Low due to Brown’s threats. She said the threats made against her by Brown were upsetting to her family and her colleagues.
“It’s a threat on my district. It’s a threat on our constitutional republic. It’s a threat on our way of life,” she said.
Rogers addressed Clark directly, saying, “When I took an oath as I heard you did, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, I took that as a lifetime oath. And so when someone comes after me, they’re coming after my people. And so I think, as the Slatons said, a message does need to be sent. And to have had an individual who has been a schoolteacher, who schools our children, who’s ostensibly had a background check and so forth, who sends this kind of thing to an elected official, that’s serious. So I advocate for the full force and the effect of the law to the prison time (of) 2½ years,” she said.
Deputy County Attorney Devon Hall represented the state at the sentencing. Hall said the email Brown sent wasn’t something that was done on the spur of the moment. Brown took steps to conceal his identity before sending the email to the Slatons, he said. He said the state is concerned that Brown would escalate to that point simply because he disagrees with Rogers politically.
Hall added that although character witness letters were sent on behalf of Brown saying that this was out of character for him, it does not excuse the actions Brown took, which caused Rogers and the Slatons to fear for their lives on July 4.
Hall said the state feels that due to the serious nature of Brown’s email, 2½ years in prison is more appropriate than probation alone.
Joseph Finch, Brown’s attorney, then addressed the court. He said Brown has a master’s degree in education and has taught music for over 30 years. Brown resigned from teaching when these charges came out, he said. Brown knows that he will “likely never teach again. He understands that and he accepts that as a consequence of his actions,” Finch said.
Finch highlighted Brown’s career accomplishments and mentioned that Brown has been an active churchgoer all his life.
“As Don sits here today, he’s a broken man and he feels all these accomplishments are meaningless because of the hateful and awful email that he sent,” Finch said.
“Don understands that his email was unacceptable and under no circumstances would it ever be OK to do that. His emotional reaction got the very best of him in a very bad way,” Finch said.
Brown has been attending counseling since the incident, Finch said.
He added that Brown never denied sending the email. When arrested in Tucson, Brown took responsibility for sending the email, the lawyer said.
Finch asked Clark to consider a maximum sentence of four years of probation for Brown.
Brown then addressed the court saying he made a serious mistake after reading statements made by Rogers that he found to be “deeply offensive.”
He said he reacted out of “great anger and carelessness.”
“I wrote a threatening, ugly, dark, profane message,” Brown said. He continued by saying his offense was a mistake that he is “utterly and terribly ashamed of.”
Brown turned to look at the Slatons and Rogers once during his sentencing as he addressed his actions.
“I cannot express my regret and remorse to Mr. and Mrs. Slaton, or to Mrs. Rogers, or to the court in sufficient terms. I want to apologize to them and to everyone here today for my offense. I do not wish them, or anyone, for that matter, any harm or ill will,” Brown said.
Clark then moved forward with sentencing, saying he considered that Brown has no previous felony history and that he received positive letters attesting to Brown’s character. Clark expressed that Brown lived a good life up until his July 4 action.
However, “this offense does go beyond the victims to whom this was addressed,” Clark said.
The offense required the state to take “significant action” to address “a very real threat,” he said.
“There are some offenses that just warrant prison. People expect prison for certain offenses. I think this is one of those, Mr. Brown,” Clark said.
Clark stated that probation is not an appropriate sentence due to “the emotional harm caused to the victims.”
Clark said he took into consideration the threat Brown made to use a deadly weapon, which led him to sentence Brown to the Department of Corrections for 2½ years.
Rogers was pleased with Brown’s sentence. “By asserting the 2½-year prison sentence on the man who threatened my life, (the judge) ruled in favor of my constituents, who elected me to fight for them. He understood that a threat on my life was a direct threat to them and their representation in a constitutional republic,” she said.
The Slatons shared Rogers’ sentiment. “Fittingly, on this 79th anniversary of D-Day, (the judge) ruled justly. He upheld the sacred values and sacrifices made by brave Americans. In northern Arizona especially, our Trumped Store is a community where patriots gather. They will continue to do so proudly and safely because this judge upheld the rule of law, which makes us proud,” the Slatons said in a joint statement.
In a statement to the White Mountain Independent, Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon said, “Hopefully, today’s sentence sends the message to the community that threats of harm to others won’t be tolerated, whether they be threats against state legislators, election officials or your neighbor.”
...and not one word as to motive, unless I missed it.
No political identification as to the victim being a Republican. Coincidence? I think not!
Thanks for clarifying that. You would never know by reading the article. It’s kind of clear what the motives of the perp are when there’s no mention of it in the article.
How angry at these people will he be after he spends some time in prison.
Creepy dude may have a masters degree but he’s too stupid to know that one doesn’t threaten to kill a person
No mercy on brown. The sentence should have been longer. Lawfare works both ways.
In two or three places I believe it was mentioned the motive was “because she disagreed w/ him politically”.
I agree about that. 2yrs doesn’t teach much of a lesson.
This causes cognitive dissonance.
People will resort to horrible things to stop others from showing how wrong their world-view is.
Identified as churchgoers to imply conservatve. This needs to get out on Twitter
It was only a masters in education... and he taught music ... intelligence not needed ...
Lotsa educators in antifa ...
Uh oh. Three names is not good. And he looks like Jack Smith without a beard, but in a tee shirt.
The article said, Brown said, she made statements he considered deeply offensive. But they didn’t elaborate on what those statements were.
She probably said people shouldn’t kill babies or something.
The article is pretty quiet on lots of things, though at least hints are in the text: Masters in Education; 30 years as a school teacher; union member? Was he a union or Dem Party activist?
does he still have his pension?
There is that
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