Jonathan David Brown
is an
American
record producer and
audio engineer known for
his work on albums released
in the
Contemporary Christian music
industry. Brown served
federal prison time as an
accessory after the fact
for helping a friend evade
authorities.[1]
Brown's production work
started with several
Maranatha! Music artists
in the 1970s and continued
through the 1980s, working
with such artists as
Petra,
Twila Paris,
Steve Taylor,
Daniel Amos,
Glen Campbell,
Bob Bennett and
David Meece. His work as
a recording engineer
includes albums for
Mark Heard, Daniel Amos,
Gentle Faith, and
Tom Howard.[2]
Federal prison
In 1992, Brown was sentenced
to a 27-month
federal prison term and
fined $10,000 for
accessory after the fact
to a conspiracy to violate
civil rights under 18 U.S.C.
3 and 241 (two of the
hate crime laws in the
United States), and for
perjury under 18 U.S.C.
1623a.[1]
The court established that
Brown helped Damion Patton,
described by Nashville
police as a juvenile "skinhead",[1]
hide from authorities and
disguise his car after
Patton and Leonard William
Armstrong, the Grand Dragon
of the Tennessee
White Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan,[1]
carried out a pre-dawn
drive-by shooting of a
Jewish synagogue in
Nashville, Tennesee on
June 10, 1990.[12]
The court case revealed that
in the evening of June 9,
1990, Brown attended a
meeting of
white supremacists known
for their hatred of Jewish
people.[1]
Patton and Armstrong were
there as well. At 1:00 a.m.
on June 10, Patton drove
past the West End Synagogue
in Nashville and Armstrong
fired several shots through
its windows with a
TEC-9 assault pistol,
injuring none as the
building was unoccupied.[1]
On June 15, Brown's
apartment was searched under
warrant, with police looking
for Patton. There, they
seized articles belonging to
Brown which, according to
the court record, "indicat[ed]
membership in the Ku Klux
Klan and other white
supremacist groups."[1]
In the days following the
shooting incident, Brown
helped Patton evade
authorities by lying to
police regarding Patton's
whereabouts, by hiding him
at his farm in
Pleasantville, and by
helping Patton change the
color of his car from white
to black with spray paint.
Brown gave Patton a license
plate from one of his trucks
and supplied Patton with
enough money to drive to
Las Vegas and stay
there. Some five months
later, Brown allowed Patton
to live again on his farm
for a month. In September
1991, the FBI arrested
Patton who plead guilty to
his part in the synagogue
shooting.[1]
In front of the
United States Court of
Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit in 1994, Brown
sought to overturn his
convictions based on his
contention that the
synagogue was owned by a
corporation and not by
citizens, and thus could not
be covered by 42 U.S.C. Sec.
1982 (1988) which he argued
applied solely to the
property rights of citizens.[1]
Brown challenged as
unwarranted the seizure of
his personal property.[1]
The three-judge court upheld
the convictions on March 21,
1995, with Circuit Judge
Alice M. Batchelder
dissenting from the main
opinion of
Boyce F. Martin, Jr. and
Richard Alan Enslen.[1]
Batchelder held that the
search warrants against
Brown were invalid, and
that, though the action of
shooting at a synagogue
should have been
criminalized by 18 U.S.C.
Sec. 247, the wording of
that law was insufficient to
give protection to people
who utilize property such as
a synagogue but who do not
own a share of it.[1]
Batchelder wrote that
Congress should amend
the law to widen its
coverage.[1]
Batchelder agreed with the
court opinion that Brown's
conviction of perjury should
stand.[1]
Brown refers to his
incarceration as his
"Federal Sabbatical".[13]
Lunar sabbath
Jonathan David Brown was the
first sabbath keeper in the
20th century to begin the
practice of counting the
Sabbath from the New Moon
day rather than using the
modern seven day week.
He published the book
Keeping Yahweh's
Appointments in 1998,[8]
which explained the
practice. The Lunar Sabbath
movement has grown among the
Messianic Judaism,
Armstrong/Worldwide
Church of God and
Christian Identity
movements.
