Antoinette Brown watched the nation-wide fervor over three UCLA players, watched President Trump intervene, watched as three Americans who would later admit they were guilty of theft come home after a week and a half of living in China purgatory.
For 14 months, Antoinette Brown has been starved for similar justice.
“I’ll thank him,” Brown told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. “If Trump helps us, if he helps Wendell, I won’t stop thanking him. He helped get three basketball players who were guilty get out. I pray he’ll help get my innocent son out. And if he does, I’ll thank him and thank him and thank him.”
Her “innocent son” is Wendell Brown, who’s been sitting in a Chinese jail since a bar fight in September 2016. The former Canadian Football League linebacker was in Chongqing to coach a football team in a fledgling professional league when he went to celebrate a friend’s birthday at a bar. The 6-foot, 225-pound African-American in China was a curiosity, and Brown said at the bar that night, some men asked to drink with him, and he declined. Things escalated, and according to Brown’s side, a man threw a glass bottle at him.
Brown was arrested for hitting a man and allegedly causing an eye injury. According to Brown, he only lifted his arms to block the bottle-throwing.
That was Sept. 24, 2016. Brown has remained in a Chinese prison since.
“I wasn’t there at the club where it took place, but I was at the bar he came to immediately after the incident,” Alexis Andrews, a friend of Brown’s who was in China with him, told MichiganPreps in April. “He told me everything that happened; how they were picking on him, and how they started off wanting to drink with him. When he was uninterested, they got upset, which is common.”
Brown, 30, finally got his trial in July, which, according to friends of Brown, proved Brown’s innocence. Video surveillance showed he didn’t hit anyone, they said; the man with the eye injury apparently had suffered that previously, not on that night. And yet four months later, there is still no verdict and Brown is still incarcerated and facing three to 10 years in prison. According to Amnesty International research, there is a 99.2 percent conviction rate in China.
As Brown sits, Antoinette Brown stews in Detroit, where Wendell grew up, where he was a high school football star before moving on to Ball State and then the CFL. She and her husband hired a lawyer in China but have not been able to see Wendell, given the cost of the trip. They started a GoFundMe, which has raised about $10,000 but hasn’t brought her son back.
They have had limited contact with Brown, who has written letters, but they say letters containing information about the case were intercepted.
Trump assured the UCLA players, in a much higher-profile case, came home safely. Wendell and family have to rely on a higher power.
“God will assure that the truth will come out,” Wendell wrote Antoinette.
For 14 months, Antoinette Brown has been starved for similar justice.
“I’ll thank him,” Brown told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. “If Trump helps us, if he helps Wendell, I won’t stop thanking him. He helped get three basketball players who were guilty get out. I pray he’ll help get my innocent son out. And if he does, I’ll thank him and thank him and thank him.”
Her “innocent son” is Wendell Brown, who’s been sitting in a Chinese jail since a bar fight in September 2016. The former Canadian Football League linebacker was in Chongqing to coach a football team in a fledgling professional league when he went to celebrate a friend’s birthday at a bar. The 6-foot, 225-pound African-American in China was a curiosity, and Brown said at the bar that night, some men asked to drink with him, and he declined. Things escalated, and according to Brown’s side, a man threw a glass bottle at him.
Brown was arrested for hitting a man and allegedly causing an eye injury. According to Brown, he only lifted his arms to block the bottle-throwing.
That was Sept. 24, 2016. Brown has remained in a Chinese prison since.
“I wasn’t there at the club where it took place, but I was at the bar he came to immediately after the incident,” Alexis Andrews, a friend of Brown’s who was in China with him, told MichiganPreps in April. “He told me everything that happened; how they were picking on him, and how they started off wanting to drink with him. When he was uninterested, they got upset, which is common.”
Brown, 30, finally got his trial in July, which, according to friends of Brown, proved Brown’s innocence. Video surveillance showed he didn’t hit anyone, they said; the man with the eye injury apparently had suffered that previously, not on that night. And yet four months later, there is still no verdict and Brown is still incarcerated and facing three to 10 years in prison. According to Amnesty International research, there is a 99.2 percent conviction rate in China.
As Brown sits, Antoinette Brown stews in Detroit, where Wendell grew up, where he was a high school football star before moving on to Ball State and then the CFL. She and her husband hired a lawyer in China but have not been able to see Wendell, given the cost of the trip. They started a GoFundMe, which has raised about $10,000 but hasn’t brought her son back.
They have had limited contact with Brown, who has written letters, but they say letters containing information about the case were intercepted.
Trump assured the UCLA players, in a much higher-profile case, came home safely. Wendell and family have to rely on a higher power.
“God will assure that the truth will come out,” Wendell wrote Antoinette.
About Post Author
