Call To Action For Wendell Brown Jailed in China

• Steve
• November 18, 2017
• 0 Comment
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In light of the three UCLA basketball players LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley arrested for shoplifting in China, but ultimately released after President Donald Trump stepped, there is another American still waiting for justice.  Wendell Brown and his story has been circulating around the internet over the last week due to high profile case of UCLA players.

Wendell Brown is an American currently imprisoned in China for a crime he seemingly did not commit.  Brown played football at Ball State University, in the CFL, Arena League, and even an American Football League in China.  He was in China working as a trainer and coach when a fight broke out at a bar and he was accused of hitting a local and injuring him.

Brown has been imprisoned for 14 months sitting in a Chinese detention center and has already had his trial back in July of 2017.  The case against him is allegedly non-existent and his innocence was allegedly proven at his trial.  No verdict has been rendered as of yet and there is no time table on when to expect a verdict.

As stated earlier Brown has been incarcerated for 14 months and faces 10 years in a Chinese prison if found guilty.  Wendell Brown is American being falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit on foreign soil.   This is a call to action to anyone who reads this article to reach out to your Senator and the State Department on Wendell’s behalf.  This is a call to action to President Trump to use his relationship with Chinese leadership to help this American (who has never been arrested or convicted of a crime before) to come home to his friends and family.

Use social media, get on the phone, send an email whatever you can do.  We have enough divisiveness in this country lets get behind the idea of bringing home one of our brothers who was only trying to represent his family, friends, and country in a foreign place, doing what he loves. According to reports Brown’s resolve has been strong, so lets do something for him, before his resolve fades.

Wendell Brown, 30, is a former football star in Detroit, a standout at powerhouse King High School and then a three-year starting linebacker at Ball State in Indiana where he graduated in 2009. He later played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, a number of arena teams and even a professional league in Austria. He also coached the game, at King High and then a season as an assistant at Adrian College, a D-III program in Michigan.

In 2015, he found his way to Chongqing, China, a city of some 18 million in the southwest part of the country, to play and then, after an injury, coach in the American Football League of China. It seemed like an incredible opportunity. While there he taught English to adults and football to kids. He spoke at the U.S. Embassy about the game. To supplement his income, he opened a cross training business, Brown Elite Fitness.

As a 6-foot, 225-pound African-American in the middle of China, he stood out. Brown is in incredible physical condition and was a cast member once on the Discovery Network reality television show, “American Muscle.” Pictures of him putting middle-aged locals through workouts and barking motivational sayings at them – “Elite!”, “All Day!”, “Eight Days a Week”— entertained his family back home.

Life was great until Sept. 24, 2016, when Brown attended a birthday party for a friend at a bar. As Wendell’s side tells it, he struggled to blend in when out on the town because many Chinese assumed he was either rich or famous. That night some men wanted to drink with him, but Brown declined. They got angry and a dispute broke out. Brown was later arrested for hitting a man. Brown claimed he never hit anyone and only raised his arms to block bottles being thrown at him.

Regardless, Brown was taken to the Chongqing Jiangbei detention center. He had never before been arrested. Faced with no American-style bail available, no discovery process about the evidence against him and a confusing array of laws that bear little resemblance to the United States, he’s spent the past 14 months in a Chinese jail.

The family said the U.S. Consulate and Michigan’s two Senators, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, have taken up the cause, but their influence is almost non-existent in the Chinese criminal system.

“The main way we try [to help] is by talking with the Chinese authorities, and by making sure that they take Mr. Brown and any other arrested Americans’ case seriously,” Elliot Fertik of the U.S. Department of State told Michigan Radio. “We monitor cases involving American citizens who were arrested abroad to make sure that they receive fair treatment from the authorities as best we can.”

According to Brown’s friends who attended the trial, the evidence against him fell apart. The Chinese don’t release details or evidence and there is no independent media in China, however, his friends said the video surveillance showed he didn’t hit anyone, let alone with a bottle like it was alleged. It was revealed the man who claimed he was hit and had his eye injured by Brown, actually had suffered the injury in a previous incident, according to Brown’s friends. They claim Brown took the stand in his own defense and was compelling and convincing, noting that considering his size and strength, had he wanted to fight there would have been significant injuries.

That was July. There is still no verdict. It’s been four months without a ruling and no one knows when, if ever, one will come. Even if the evidence is what Brown’s supporters say, an acquittal remains a long shot. According to a study by William Nee, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Amnesty International, Chinese prosecutors enjoy a 99.2 percent conviction rate. Brown faces three to 10 years in prison.

Antoinette Brown said he can be visited once a month by the U.S. Consulate to make sure he is not being mistreated. Other than that, nothing and no one. Antoinette says that the judge in the case, however, has also gone to visit him four times since the trial to check in on him.

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