[Tlc] TLC-Roxanna Brown

[justinm at ucr.edu]

As per Shawn McHale's suggestion below, would any more senior and experienced members of the AAS want to assist me and the TLC work with the AAS leadership in calling for an investigation into Roxanna Brown's passing? She was a very important scholar and by all accounts a wonderful human being. 
Sincerely,
justin


Dear list,

This news, plus the news that Roxama Brown died in a Seattle prison, are an outrage.

I did not  know Roxanna Brown at all. And one should perhaps not jump to conclusions that individuals must be innocent. Sadly, a brother of mine  has had encounters with the US Justice system and its use of conspiracy statutes  that make me highly suspicious of it.

It is telling that one of the stories on the arrest said the following:  "An affidavit filed in the case said the gallery's owners, Jonathan and Cari Markell, used Brown's electronic signature several times to falsify appraisal forms. In one case, an appraisal for items to be donated to the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena claims Brown had inspected the items.

The couple have not been charged. They have previously declined to comment about the investigation to The Associated Press. Jonathan Markell did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent to him Monday."

This, and other information suggests that the government was putting forth a case based on conspiracy statutes (conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud). Conspiracy statutes allow one to pull in a wide range of individuals, from the inadvertently involved (e.g. a person driving a car who transports drugs unwittingly) to the kingpins. The government then tries to get individals to inform on one another as part of a plea bargain. Some of them lie through their teeth.

If Roxanna Brown allowed her electronic signature to be set up on as computer at a gallery, and if the gallery owner then abused this trust  used the signature, Roxana Brown  would be liable. And could be charged.  In other words, one does not have to commit wire fraud oneself to be charged with it.

May I suggest that the leadership of the TLC group ask Michael Paschal and the leadership of the Association of Asian Studies to press for an excplanation of the death of this scholar?

Sincerely,



Shawn McHale
Associate Professor of History and International Affairs
George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA
(on leave, 2007-08, at Vietnam National University --
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)


______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu