Support Drew Brown's Fight for Justice

Justice Matters:

Drew Brown needs our help. We are a group of Drew’s friends who are looking to raise funds to help him with the overwhelming cost of his legal defense. Drew is being unfairly prosecuted for a crime of which he had no knowledge of and had no control over. He needs our help to prevail over the overreach of a prosecution who has decided to make an example out an innocent man. He has used up all of his resources to defend himself and all funds we raise will go directly to his legal defense.

The Man Who Helps Others: Over the last twenty-five years, Drew has volunteered countless hours to his community. He has been a Scout Leader, a volunteer firefighter, he has coached over twenty teams for children in his community. He has been a CCD leader at his church and he established an organization that helps seniors in his community during snow storms and power outages. He is also a dedicated husband, and father to 3 children who has worked to support them.

The Details of the Case: Drew owned and operated a small financial services firm. Drew serviced an account for a union who was his client and, in the course of servicing the account, performed annual or semi-annual transfers from that one account to the union’s operating account. These transfers were performed at the authorized signed request of the union president and the funds were to be used for administrative purposes by the union. Both accounts were managed by separate Boards of Trustees and all forms were signed by the authorized signers. In 2019, the Southern District of New York indicted the president and treasurer of the union for misappropriating funds in their operating account, including funds from the transfers. A year after their indictment, and only five weeks before they were their trial was to start, the treasurer plead guilty to tax evasion and perjury. It was only then that the government decided to charge Drew when they had “an empty seat” next to the president. They needed to attach a second person to the case as they were filing conspiracy charges, which require two people to and Drew was made to be the fall guy. Drew was not involved in spending or use of the union funds and could not even see how it was spent as he was not a signer on any of the union’s accounts. He never received a dollar from the union or derived any “personal enrichment” from it, which was acknowledged repeatedly by the prosecution.

The prosecutors contend that Drew “must have known” that the purposes for the withdrawals were not allowed and that the union was potentially spending their funds incorrectly. This is despite it being proven in court that he did not have any insight into their operating accounts, budgets or spending. Not a single witness ever took the stand to say that Drew did anything illegal. The entire case was based on the interpretation of texts and a story built around them as well as Drew’s association with people being charged with tax fraud of which he had no knowledge.

The trial was set up jointly with the president of the union and, when he requested a severance of the case, Drew was denied a right to his own trial by the court. Because the majority of the charges were tax charges against the union president exclusively, the majority of the trial involved only the union president which had nothing to do with Drew. This created a perception of guilt by association. Unfortunately, due to his association with the president, and Drew being denied his own separate court case, he took the fall for a crime he did not commit.

Drew should not have been prosecuted. He was not a target of this investigation until a year AFTER they charged the president and treasurer AND after the treasurer plead guilty to personal tax evasion. When they approached him after all this time, he refused to plead guilty to crimes he did not commit nor take a plea deal, opting to hire lawyers to defend him. This enraged prosecutors who adopted a strategy of "convict at all costs" without regard for the truth or holding the appropriate individuals accountable. Despite all of the challenges he faced, he spent his entire life savings to try to defend himself, fight for what is just and fair, and prove his innocence.

Brady Violation: Adding to the stress of the entire situation, just days prior to the trial, Drew’s attorneys discovered gaps in the filing numbers of the evidence provided to them by the prosecutors. It turned out to be 450,000 pages of evidence (half of their “case in chief”) that was not disclosed as required by law. While the court sanctioned the prosecution, it delayed the case by months at extreme additional cost to Drew.

How you can help:

Please donate to help cover Drew’s legal bills. Drew and his wife have spent their life’s savings of nearly a million dollars and he needs our help to continue. This money will go directly to keep his legal defense lawyers going, who are fighting for an appeal. Your support will give him hope and will prove that people care about justice and that everyone deserves to be treated fairly under the law. What kind of society do we want? What kind of a criminal justice system do we deserve? Please make your voice heard