This was almost the perfect New Year’s resolution story
Too often, New Year’s resolutions end up being fleeting dreams, not goals, and that seemed to be the case with Michael J. Brown.
Earlier this month, he talked at length about spending 12 years in federal prison on drug and weapons charges, including possession of a machine gun. During that time, he resolved to pursue a noncriminal lifestyle.
“If this was ‘Star Wars,’ I was one who chose the Dark Side,” said Michael, 50, who lives on the North Side but has an official address in Washington, Pa. “I’m a convicted felon who has turned his life around and now is working 9 to 5.”
Put that statement on hold.
Over the past five years, he has worked full time on Construction Junction’s loading docks in Point Breeze and spent off hours as a tattoo artist. He said he’s married, has grandchildren, and was determined to stay out of jail through discipline and avoiding temptation. He expressed relief at no longer having to look over his shoulder for police.
“I spent the first couple of years in jail filled with anger and didn’t accept the fact I was responsible,” he said.
He had come from a good family and good parents — albeit financially strapped ones — and has had artistic talent since childhood.
“Nothing in my household made me go to the Dark Side,” he said.
Previous stints in jail were never long enough to force him to rethink his life, but that changed, Michael said, with the 151-month prison sentence, of which he served 144 in various federal penitentiaries.
Anger ruled him those first three years — typical of convicts who want to project blame on anyone but themselves, he said. In time, he realized personal changes were necessary.
“I finally realized I had the breadwinner all along to make money legally,” he said, referring to his tattoo artist skills.
If he could operate an illegal enterprise, he could operate a legal one. So he took a job at the federal prison industries program Unicor and made furniture, room dividers and military duffel bags.
“I went to Unicor to condition my body and mind to get up each morning and go to work, so that when you got out, it would be no problem getting up and showing discipline,” he said. “I still get up at 5:30 each morning.”
His singular goal?
“Don’t go back to jail.” “This is the first job where I can say I’m here because I want to be here,” he said of Construction Junction. “It provides stability with a structure in place.”
The self-described “work in progress” also said “it’s easier to get into trouble than to get out of it” and that one should “avoid negative energy.”
“Idle time is the devil’s playground,” he said at least twice.
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photographer was scheduled to take his photograph at Construction Junction on Dec. 17, but he didn’t show up for work and didn’t respond to phone calls or text messages.
My troubling hunch was confirmed by online court dockets revealing his arrest the day before on charges of burglary, robbery, criminal conspiracy, terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, possession of instruments of crime, simple assault and recklessly endangering others. Police seized a digital scale, empty stamp bags and more than $3,000 in cash. No drug charges were filed.
This is what the criminal complaint said happened:
Around 8 p.m. Dec. 16, police were dispatched to Woods Run Avenue in Brighton Heights for a reported burglary and robbery in process. Two men dressed in black with black ski masks and black handguns entered a residence, and one man drew a gun on a victim.
Entering the living room, the gunman held a gun to the head of another victim while yelling, “Give me it all or I will kill you.” After he was handed $2,000, he ransacked a bedroom and stole a jar full of change before the men drove away in a silver pickup truck. A victim reported the license number.
Police soon spotted and followed the pickup until it stopped. The two occupants fled into nearby woods. The driver was arrested and identified as Michael J. Brown. The other man, Troy Hogan, 45, was arrested after a chase. He was identified as the gunman.
Michael was released Dec. 17 from Allegheny County Jail on $18,000 bond. He still didn’t answer phone calls.
Yes, he’s innocent until proven otherwise. We reporters realize the risks of doing upbeat stories about death-defying centenarians, overachieving third-string quarterbacks and penitent felons.
Too often resolutions just don’t last. Determination lapses. Desires and distractions trump discipline and good intentions. It may take a long time for Michael, already a convicted felon, to earn another chance at freedom.
Never again will he merit a path-to-redemption story.
And, sadly, he did get his picture taken — his mugshot.