Former attorney sentenced for embezzling $1.2M from late civil rights leader's grandson
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Flowood attorney Michael J. Brown, 55, is escorted to Hinds County Chancery Court in 2012. / File photo/ The Clarion-Ledger
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A former Flowood attorney has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for embezzling more than $1.2 million from the guardianship account of the grandson of the late civil rights leader Aaron Henry.
Michael J. Brown, 56, was convicted of two counts of embezzlement in Rankin County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison with 10 of those years suspended.
A Rankin County grand jury indicted Brown after Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas asked the district attorney’s office to look into the case.
Last year, Dewayne Thomas ordered Brown jailed for contempt for allegedly mishandling the $3 million inheritance of De Mon McClinton.
Thomas said Brown used McClinton's inheritance money as his own.
"He misappropriated $1.2 million and it looks like he embezzled at least $240,000," Thomas said of Brown.
Thomas ordered Brown to repay the $1.2 million and also ordered him to repay $398,000 in attorney fees he received from the account.
“There is no greater trust than that between a lawyer and his client,” said Michael Guest, district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties. “ Brown was an officer of the court, whose sole purpose was to protect the interest of the minor child. Brown broke that trust and he trampled on the interest of the child in the name of greed.”
Brown had practiced law since 1994. He has been disbarred.
The McClinton case began on June 16, 2000, when a petition was filed in Hinds County Chancery Court for Thomas McClinton Jr. of Jackson to become guardian of his son, then-16-year-old De Mon McClinton. Brown was the acting attorney for the guardianship. McClinton had lived with his mother, Rebecca Henry, who was Aaron Henry’s daughter in Clarksdale until her death. Once she died, more than $6 million was split between her two sons.
The guardianship case was closed in 2005, but in 2009 De Mon McClinton, then an adult, asked that the case be reopened.
Michael J. Brown, 56, was convicted of two counts of embezzlement in Rankin County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison with 10 of those years suspended.
A Rankin County grand jury indicted Brown after Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas asked the district attorney’s office to look into the case.
Last year, Dewayne Thomas ordered Brown jailed for contempt for allegedly mishandling the $3 million inheritance of De Mon McClinton.
Thomas said Brown used McClinton's inheritance money as his own.
"He misappropriated $1.2 million and it looks like he embezzled at least $240,000," Thomas said of Brown.
Thomas ordered Brown to repay the $1.2 million and also ordered him to repay $398,000 in attorney fees he received from the account.
“There is no greater trust than that between a lawyer and his client,” said Michael Guest, district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties. “ Brown was an officer of the court, whose sole purpose was to protect the interest of the minor child. Brown broke that trust and he trampled on the interest of the child in the name of greed.”
Brown had practiced law since 1994. He has been disbarred.
The McClinton case began on June 16, 2000, when a petition was filed in Hinds County Chancery Court for Thomas McClinton Jr. of Jackson to become guardian of his son, then-16-year-old De Mon McClinton. Brown was the acting attorney for the guardianship. McClinton had lived with his mother, Rebecca Henry, who was Aaron Henry’s daughter in Clarksdale until her death. Once she died, more than $6 million was split between her two sons.
The guardianship case was closed in 2005, but in 2009 De Mon McClinton, then an adult, asked that the case be reopened.
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