New York — He was a convicted drug dealer Grant clemency US President Donald Trump was returned to federal prison on Monday for… Violation of terms He was released after being accused of committing several new crimes.
Jonathan Brown was sentenced to 27 months in prison.
A Long Island man was accused of beating and threatening to kill a hospital nurse, yelling at a member of his church, groping his family’s nanny, and evading bridge tolls.
Brooklyn federal judge Kiyo Matsumoto said she hoped Brown’s “expressions of remorse” and promises to “live a law-abiding life” were in good faith, noting that many of the people he hurt have since forgiven him.
“Don’t waste it,” she told Brown.
Prosecutors had asked for a five-year prison sentence, the maximum penalty allowed, arguing that a long period behind bars was “necessary to protect the public from further crimes.”
“The defendant’s brazen and violent behavior caused fear and terror in his victims,” prosecutors wrote in a memo to the court before sentencing. They said Brown continued to show that he “posed a serious danger to the community.”
Brown has been detained in a federal prison in Brooklyn since his arrest last April on charges of violating the terms of his release. This time will be deducted from his sentence.
Katherine Wosencroft, Brown’s federal public defender, demanded his immediate release.
Since returning to prison, Brown has been meeting with a psychiatrist, getting sober and working to rebuild his faith and community support, speaking with a rabbi twice a week and expressing remorse for his actions, she said. She said Brown’s behavior was driven by addiction.
“The past seven months in custody have afforded Mr. Brown ample time to reflect on the very serious harm caused by his conduct, and to take the necessary steps to ensure his success in moving forward with supervision,” Wisecroft wrote to the judge before the hearing.
Brown was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to drug charges. He served about a year behind bars before Trump His sentence was commuted In the final days of his first term in January 2021. Brown was released from prison, but the rest of his sentence remained unchanged, including being required to pay a fine and stay out of trouble.
Federal prosecutors said at the time that Brown was a high-ranking member of an international group that smuggled more than 100,000 kilograms (220,460 pounds) of marijuana from Canada to the United States.
Prosecutors said Brown cursed at nurses in January and argued with an assistant director of nursing in Long Island Hospital’s emergency department, picking up an IV line that was attached to his arm and swinging it in her direction when she approached him and tried to calm him down.
Brown’s wife was also yelling at hospital staff, prosecutors said. When the assistant director of nursing said she would have to leave, Brown attacked the assistant director of nursing, walked toward her until hospital security stopped him, shouted obscenities, and repeatedly said he was going to kill her, prosecutors said.
In February, Brown entered his nanny’s bedroom, wrapped one arm around her upper body and used the other hand to pin her head before grabbing her breasts and making unwanted sexual advances, prosecutors said. The nanny testified in court that Brown’s actions made her feel so uncomfortable that she locked herself in the bathroom, called her husband and asked him to call the police.
In March, Brown grabbed a fellow congregant, threatened him and told him to be silent during a synagogue service, prosecutors said. After walking away for 10 minutes, Brown allegedly got in the man’s face, squeezed his right arm forcefully and asked, “Do you know who I am?” and “Do you know what I could have done to you?”
Brown’s violations did not end there. Last summer, he dodged bridge tolls at least 40 times while driving his luxury cars, racking up $160 in unpaid tolls, police said.
He also failed to pay a court-ordered fine despite living in a multimillion-dollar home and driving luxury cars, and he also failed to provide “truthful and complete financial disclosures” to probation officials, including proof of full-time employment, prosecutors said.