Convicted Felon Mark “Steve” Brown or Prisoner 36608-04 as he is now referred to as recently confirmed what he already knew – money and influence can buy you anything.

Brown worked for ten years under then Attorney General Jay Nixon, eventually achieving the position of Deputy Attorney General for the eastern half of Missouri.  Brown was in charge with enforcing the laws.  He was a hardnosed prosecutor – those who committed wrong against society deserved their punishment.

And then he got bored.  Brown’s first effort to relieve his boredom came when he ran his best friend’s campaign for Congress.  Not only did Jeff Smith consider Brown his best friend, he was a mentor; someone he looked to for advice.  So when Smith realized that his campaign for the United States Congress was going to fall just short of the mark, he looked to Steve Brown for advice.  Attorney General Steve Brown.  Attorney Steve Brown.  Best Friend Steve Brown.  Campaign guru Steve Brown.  And Mentor Steve Brown.

Smith’s attractiveness came from the belief that he was a fresh face – one who was above politics.  A direct attack on Russ Carnahan could hurt Smith more than Carnahan.  Brown concocted a scheme in an attempt to salvage the campaign.  Brown convinced Smith that it would be wise to attack Carnahan through an anonymous mailer produced by convicted felon Milton “Skip” Ohlsen (who would use the same tactic again two years later in a special election that would see Frank Barnitz elected to the Missouri Senate).  Brown would coordinate the effort and raise the money for the mailing — that would not produce a win for Smith.

Brown would later coordinate the effort to ensure that everyone told the same lie about the campaign mailing in order to ensure that others did not point the finger at him.  When the Federal Election Commission was looking for him, Brown failed to come forward and “do the right thing”.  Brown then promised Ohlsen that he would take care of him in exchange for keeping quiet.  If he took care of Ohlsen the way he took care of Smith, we now know how Ohlsen ended up in the Federal Penitentiary.

Steve Brown would go back to the Attorney General’s office.  In order to alleviate his new found boredom, Brown would blog about Republicans on the website Firedup Missouri.  Brown accused legislators of corruption; executive branch member of self-dealing, and career public servants of misdeeds.  It didn’t matter if you were guilty or not – Steve Brown decided that you were guilty.  We now know that Brown was simply parlaying his own misdeeds onto others – since he knew how corrupt he was, certainly others in public service would be just as corrupt as he.

Brown was still not happy.  He then invested over $100,000 of his own money to purchase a seat in the Missouri Legislature.  The man who prosecuted criminals by day and hatched criminal schemes by night would now write the laws that he had no intentions of obeying.

It was all a nice plan until the Federal Bureau of Investigations knocked on his door.  Instead of acknowledging that he was a hypocritical state prosecutor who created, funded, implemented, and then concealed an illegal scheme, Steve Brown pinned the blame on his best friend, Jeff Smith.  As has everything else for Steve Brown, it worked.  Jeff Smith will now be serving time in the Penitentiary for Steve Brown’s actions.

Meanwhile, a group of influential friends of Steve Brown’s family had regular meetings.  The purpose of the meeting:  keep their friendly felon, Steve Brown, out of prison.  Why should he go to prison when his family had connections in the highest of places in St. Louis society?  Surely, they had enough clout to sway a few prosecutors and a judge.

And apparently they did.  Steve Brown will get to spend the next year of his life with his family while his best friend spends it looking over his shoulder.

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