Charlotte City Councilwoman appears before federal judge (05-23-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to dpeatclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. Charlotte City council member Tiyajana Brown and her daughters to adult daughters have been indicted on federal charges. They were all given unsecured twenty five thousand dollars bond this morning at the federal courthouse. WBTV reports the charges were made public Thursday morning, hours after Brown sent an early morning press release saying that she expected to face federal charges. Brown was elected to the city council in twenty twenty three represents District three, covering most of West Charlotte. WBTV has been digging deeper into the federal investigation into Brown for weeks, even as she initially dodged questions about the allegations. All right, so I just mentioned about the h the bond hearing there in the federal court and our own breaking Brett Jensen was out there and he joins us, Now, hey, Brett, how did it go? While we're still here and we're waiting for her attorneys to come out, Rob rob and Michael Green. Rob he Roy and Michael Green. And Michael Green's one of the top defense attorneys in all of Mechamok County. Like he's he's a big he's a big gun that they've hired and he's going to be assisting. So she and her two daughters were raigned today, each separately in separate instances, and so each one was given a twenty five thousand dollars unsecured bond. All three must surrender their passports. Tijuana Brown is allowed to travel throughout the country because of her work with American Airlines. The other two daughters are being refined to travel strictly within the Western district of North Carolina. I can also tell you that Tijuana Brown refused to comment as we left the courtroom, But we are waiting for her attorneys, and the hold up right now is that one of the daughters still had to be processed, and so they're waiting in a side room until the daughter is formally processed. And it's the daughter that lives full time in Atlanta and from that is being processed. So a twenty five thousand dollars unsecured bond, which means they don't have to pay any money. It just means that if they don't show up for court, then they have to pay the twenty five thousand dollars bond. So all right, So when are the lawyers representing all three of them? No, as a matter of fact, each defendant has their own individual lawyers, and two of them, the two daughters, are having lawyers that are ones on a contingency basis and ones in the process of probably being hired. But you know Tijuana, she's she's brought some big guns, right and so, but the other two are not like they're they're they're not high like they're not well known for their defense as a high profile cases, I should say. So there was there any was there any discussion of any of the facts of the case or was it just a simple process of you got a lawyer, Yes, I have a lawyer, and you know, you know the charges against you, and that's it. Yeah, that's basically and the arguments were over the you know, the the you know release pre trial release, and that's what the arguments were over in the standards and where they have to surrender passports, where they not have to surrender passports? Can they You know that each daughter has a chip plan. One has a trip plan to Jamaica, another one has a chip plan to Europe, and so each one of them wanted them to be able to keep their passports so they could go to there. And you know, there were a couple of times when you know, Tijuana got defiant a couple of times, specifically when it came to her passport, and you know, it was talking over her lawyer and interrupting her lawyer about her wanting to keep her passport and saying this is her life's work and she's not backing down. Regardless of what happened, you know, it was you know, and it was, it was, it was, it was it was a little bit of a. Show beyond show. And how did the judge react to that? Nothing, absolutely nothing, just said you need to speak to your attorney before you speak to us, and you know, but yet Tijuana was not whispering. It was a full ball. The entire core could hear her entire court when I should say, you could hear, and she's, you know, this is my life's work, and I'm you know, I am not apologizing and I will continue to do my life's work and and so, but they did say, you know, if you need for any specific reason to go out of the country, then you have to file a specific motion and we will hear this on a case by case basis, because apparently some inmates that she works with are abroad, oh it be Mexico or Canada. Or whatever, and so there might be an opportunity for somebody to help her escape or something if she were to try to flee the charges. I assume well and that you know. And one of the daughters the hazard trip to Jamaica, and the judge says, I need to know who you're going with, how long are you going to be there, what hotels you're going to too? Is it a direct flight? Is a non direct flight? And then same thing with the other daughter who's going to Europe for five days to celebrate being accepted into nursing school. And so she is planning to go to Europe for celebrating or getting accepted into nursing school, and so the judge the same thing to her. I need to know exactly what countries you're going to and what hotels and who you're going with, and then we'll review the situation and see what the federal government has to say about it. Was there any discussion for the daughter that lives in Atlanta about restricting her also to the Western District of North Carolina or is she does she get to return to Atlanta? So the only thing the only she because she lives in Atlanta full times, so she has been restricted to travel only within the Northern District of Georgia and the Western District of North Carolina are the only two places that she's allowed to travel to because she will be traveling be required to be traveling back and forth to Charlotte. But she does live full time. In Atlanta, right, Okay, you mentioned this, I don't know attitude or her defiance. I think you used the word defiant. Uh So, I don't know. Were you at the press conference yesterday? No, I was not there yet. Okay, because what you described and her interaction with her lawyer today, it sounds like a glimpse of what I caught in watching the playback of that press conference yesterday, where like the lawyer started to try to shut down a particular line of questioning by you know, giving some you know answer that was sort of vanilla and you know, a non answer, and then she started talking over her lawyer like no, no, no, I know, my life's work, I can talk about that, and like, I know. And so it's why I'm wondering, did her lawyer advise her not to do that press conference yesterday and she just ignored the advice of counsel because I don't know a lawyer that would that would have allowed their client to do that if they were just advising them. And the client says, yes, okay, I take your advice, you're the pro. I don't think that. I don't think that the lawyer would have advised her to do that press conference. Well, and I think you never said correct. And I don't have the direct answer of that one. But you know, I watched the entire press conference yesterday, and I can tell you that what you saw yesterday was exactly sort of what you saw in court today, but to a lesser degree in terms of the loudness of her voice. It was a little bit quieter but you could still hear it and you know, discussing this is my life's work and I am not I can down and this is and it was, you know. And then finally at the very very end, and I want to make sure I actually wrote it down for Baden, I want to make sure I get this right. But at the very very end she addressed the judge, and not in a bad way or anything like that, but she had trust the judge. And I just want to make sure I've got the exact quote here, because she wanted to say that, you know, she travels all over the world because of her community work. She goes, she goes your honor. It was my it was my pleasure. You've been very kind today, have a great day. And everyone started was like, uh, okay. Yeah, I don't know. That was a little odd, but so neither one of the two daughters said anything remotely close to that. Did you catch the name of the judge? Yes, yes, I do have the judge until so Judge Bell will be hearing the cases at least for the two daughters, and I think he's also hearing the Chase of Tijuana. But the judge today is Judge Sullivan. Uh heard in all my notes here. Susan C. Rodriguez is her name, Susan the Rodriguez. She was the judge today determining what the pre trial release will be. Well, and I don't know anything about Judge Rodriguez, but it is possible that the kind words at the end there from Brown, Uh maybe maybe they know each other from Democrat politics, so like it's quite possible that they have met each other at various you know, events or something like that. So maybe she knows her, and that's why she was saying that. I don't know. That's yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, it was. It was just odd. I've never you know, you've been very kind today. Thank you your honor and have a great day. Yeah, but it was it was just it was an odd situation. Like I said, But I don't think she's going to be hearing the game. I believe this is Judge Bell, that we'll be hearing the case going forward. All right, Uh, Brett, I appreciate as always work you're doing out there, and we'll see if the lawyers stop by and chat with media for a bit of time, and if they do, feel free to jump back on. But I know you'll be covering it throughout the day here as well. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Yes, sir, thank you. That's Brett Jensen. You can catch them here on WBT. Although his timeslot is moving, so he's seven to eight now, but he's going to be moving six to seven. When does that start? Tuesday? Tuesday? So there you go. He's gonna be able to go to bed earlier or hit the bars earlier either way. All right, that's breaking Brett Jensen. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started you using ground News a few months ago, and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot Ground dot news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Hiight, let me get to. Some messages here, Michael, he says, Pete. I hope you're doing well today. I am, Michael, thank you for asking. I was listening to the segment with Mayor Pat McCrory that was in the last hour. I noticed him say Charlotte was previously clean. May have missed Velma Leak gaming the school system and falsely establishing a residency to allow her grandson C. J. Leak to go to a school in a district in which he did not live. Okay, So first off, Michael, I like I remember vill Malik. She's county commissioner now, but back in the day she was on the school board. There were questions about her residency, and I've talked about that over the years. I'm not going to get into all of the details of that now, but there was there was always a deal. Just like you heard. Pat say that his rule was always let the chief be the chief, right, And there was always this deal between the school system and the city council. You do schools, we do the city, and we do not get involved in each other's business. Because the school district was always and still is right, they were always a part of the county commissioners, and so the city council was always and the mayor was always off to the side from the school district. So there was never any commenting about or you know, advocating for stuff related to schools if you were on city ca council. They drew a line sort of between those two bodies. So I would not unless there's like some massive scandal involved, you would not expect to hear anything from city council members against school board members or the school district county commissioners. Yes, so that was so to defend Pat on that, but that was there. That was their deal. They were very open and clear about that, and everybody adhered to that, and maybe he overlooked Patrick Cannon. He did not overlook Patrick Cannon. In fact, he cited Pat Cannon. Pat Cannon got elected after Anthony Fox. Anthony Fox got elected after Pat McCrory, So Pat McCrory was already governor when Pat Cannon's bribery occurred. That's and he mentioned that scandal as like that was sort of the first one that was that was so shocking because like everybody was operating it. I can attest to this too. I covered the city council. For a day decade, and like there there weren't there weren't any stories like like Pat Kennon, there weren't any stories like this thing with the city council and the. Payoff to the police chief. There weren't. They just didn't have these kinds of scandalous stories. And then Michael says, I am positive that you are a master status ninja at clever wit and sarcasm. I do believe you have a black belt in sarcasm. In fact, that's true. In fact, it is a black belt to the nth degree. It's the highest you can achieve. Thank you for the spectacular way you cover the news. Well, thank you, Michael, I appreciate I do it for you. Guys, I know you are out there leading far more productive lives than I could, so I figure I will aggregate stuff and tell you, hey, here are some stories that and some deep dives and analysis that you know you're not hopefully getting anywhere else. I have my own lane here and I do this stuff so you don't have to. It's very I mean, the word hero is overused, I know in our society today, but in this case, I think it might apply. Let me go over to the Twitter machine, and Russ says, I hope that if I ever get into some kind of trouble, I don't call a press conference to explain myself and then step on so many rakes that may seem like I'm guilty that my attorney has to keep jumping in. Also, what is with this trend of I did the thing, but I shouldn't face any consequences because of who I am. I'm part of this group, or I've done other good things or something. Yeah, their excuses, Russ, They're just excuses. And this is one of the things that I actually like most about covering local politics and governance, which is that a lot of the people that are in these positions are not exactly good politicians at the craft, you know, at the craft of being a politician, and so you see them do things, you hear them say things that you don't get at the national level because to get to that level, you got to be a bit more polished and practiced. And the only way to get there, you know, is through experience, either in the business world, but mainly through lower elected offices. You make your way up the ladder, so to speak. But at the local level, man like, you're dealing with people that are really rough around the edges, and that's what makes it so unpredictable and if I'm being honest, a wee bit entertaining. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. 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Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins Offashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. We are doing the deep dive into our indicted Charlotte City councilwoman. Do you want to brown pleaded not guilty? This morning? As you heard from Brett Jensen earlier in the hour Released on twenty five thousand dollars unsecured bond let me go over and talk with Bill. Hello, Bill, welcome to the shoe. How are you hey? Doing well? I wanted to mention I had heard on an earlier program a comment about Charlotte being a world class city, and I would like to say, I don't think so yet. Maybe when we had a better leadership with Pat McCrory and all. But as long as the citizens of this city elect people as incompetent and unqualified as miss miss Brown, I don't consider it. I would nominate my hometown small of Elmira, New York, home of Tommy Hill figure the first African American Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis, as to not our main Collins burial place of Mark Twain. I think we're more world class than I would consider Charlotte at this point, with all the turmoil. Well that's a fair point, Bill, I appreciate the call. It's a fair point. That call sponsored by the Elmira Chamber of Commerce. I'm just kidding, no, but I think I think actually having a couple of city officials get indicted, I think that does make us world class, doesn't it. That's okay, let me jump over here. Brett Jensen returns with more information. I'm assuming, Hey, Bret, what's up. How's it going. So the attorneys just spoke with us and Tiuana. You know, we surrounded her, walked with her for just over a block. Surrounding her as she walked the famous Purp walk. Yeah. Well you know she was walking to her car. Yeah, and so we surrounded her and you know, all the cameras and everyone following her and asking her questions that at first she wouldn't answer, and then she just couldn't help herself. And then she started talking. What did she say? And well, you know, she she she said that the judge was a lovely person, and she appreciates the judge, and she's not going to stop her life's work. You know, a lot of the stuff she said in court. But she also said, you know, she feels like she still has the support of the entire community. And she says, she goes, I want every precinct. I had the support of my district. And I said, and I in my follow up was well, that was before the indictment. Yes, exactly, and we didn't nobody knew anything about all of this stuff. But when she ran for election. And then and then I said, so I said, why should they still trust you or have faith? Yeah, why should they still have trust and faith in you? And then she said no comment. Oh, and that's not the right answer. That is not the right answer. Yep, she did say, well, excuse me. Speaking to her one of our attorneys and I asked him, I said, we will this be tried together separately by Judge ken Bell And he said, at this point, they believe all three will be tried together as one singular case. So my take on that then is that because it is alleged in the indictment that this was a conspiracy, that indicates then to me that they are If you're going to try them together, it means that they were all in cahoots to do the thing. Well, right, you know. And if you remember yesterday Keanna Brown kipt saying I paid back my twenty eight and forty eight dollars or whatever it was. All she kept saying is that we would have men. There's one hundred and twenty four thousand dollars listed in the indictment. I paid back my portion. I paid back my share. Granted, she says she just paid it back a couple of months ago, and the situation happened four years ago and she just paid it back. But you know, so I'm thinking, all right, you know, if you are to give her all the benefit of the doubts and everything else like that, and you're going, okay, you only had the twenty thousand and you paid it back, Well, then why would you want to be tied with your daughters who maybe committed much greater fraud because one of the daughters is charged with a lot of them, a lot of accounts and so. But no, but speaking with what you know, Rob has heroy today that he was just like, yeah, because it looks like he is. I would guess that they'll be all tried together, and it will be several months down the road. Yeah, and they may try to they may try to get separate trials for the for the all three different defendants. That's possible. Maybe if somebody starts talking to you know, turn state's witness or something, or a federal witness, then then maybe that changes or something. But yeah, she also wouldn't answer who it was that filled out the application. She kept saying a third party. Wouldn't name that third party whether that's her daughter's or if there was some other entity or organization or person that did it for her. She wouldn't. Yeah, she wouldn't say that either. And she only paid the money back, she said, when there was some scrutiny in the application, which I don't know what that means. And where did that scrutiny come from? Because if it came from reporters like David Hodges and Nick Oxner asking about some of this stuff weeks ago, as they say in their news story, then maybe that's what prompted her to pay it back. Or maybe the FED started asking her questions and that's what prompted her to pay it back. But it's not like she it's not like she realized something on her own and then went and paid it back. It was that people were asking her questions about the documents that were submitted that contained fake IRS SCHEDULEC forms, and like that's a problem, that's a big problem. Well, well it is. And again, if you know the discrepancy, why would it take four years or four and a half years for that to be brought to light? If you're Tijuanna Brown, like all of a sudden, this is all just purely coincidental that BTV and the FEDS and everything else I mean, people forget this. You know, yesterday one of the things that she said was, you know that this is just an attempt or employed to get her to not run for re elections, to make it political. Well, this was all started. This investigation was started by a Biden appointed attorney attorney general, like for the Western District of North Carolina. Like, this was a Biden appointee that started this investigation, not a Donald Trump appointee, right. And the idea that a Trump US attorney would try to oust her. So what it goes to a different Democrat? It's District three that's not getting one may a Republican. I mean, that's what I said. I said, how many black women are Charlotte City Council right now and how many of them are Democrat? Removal of one? What does that do? Yeah, it's virtually all black Democrat females at this point on council. Yeah. So but they did, you know, they they talked about that, and they're still going to try and get some things done with her passports. And I asked the attorney, I said, so, I assume she traveled some with Mexico and Canada with her, you know, with her her nonprofit or whatever. I said, but does she trouble overseas it all? And the attorney was like, I think she does go overseas some and he goes, but I'm not upset positive and this would be why the judge is like, Okay, look like like we got to know where you're going because we've got to make sure you're going to a country that will extonite you. Yeah, yeah, all right, Brett, thanks so much for calling back with the update. We appreciate it. And do you doing your show tonight? I am doing my show tonight. It's the last night he calendar. Yeah, I'm doing it from seven to eight until next week when I got six to seven. But obviously this is going to be a heavy, heavy topic tonight. There you go, So stay tuned tonight, seven o'clock Breaking with Brett Jensen here on WBT. Thanks Bred, appreciate it, Thanks Lobete. I mean, all right, so spring is here a time of renewal and celebrations. You've got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and especial days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? Are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photos slides? Are they preserved because over time, these precious memories can fade and deteriorate, losing the magic of yesterday. At Creative Video, they help you protect what matters most. 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She's walking in in like a full length evening gown. One post on Instagram featured Brown entering the venue in an evening gown with a horse drawn carriage behind her, and another of her leaving her party and getting into the carriage. And I thought this was funny, she says. If on Instagram, it's got the picture of her getting into the carriage, and she says, if you missed it, here you go. I was born a queen. My fiftieth birthday with family and friends. My people traveled from all over the globe to help me celebrate fifty trips around the sun. I'm so humble and blessed. I'm so humble. Yes, this, this birthday party does strike me as the party. Of a humble person. Yes, I'm so, I think she meant to say humbled. I'm so humbled and blessed for the people that God has placed in my life. She'd been planning this for some time, a birthday like no other, one that they'll never forget, and then there were photos. As all people who are humbled do, is they take, you know, glamour shots atop their throne that they have purchased or rented for the birthday party of the century. And then. Oh yes, ironically, she serves on the Budget, Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. She says, I will not be trying the media. This is a recap of the press conference. I'm trying to get to the part here at the end. I'm looking for it. Okay. Beauty after the Bars that's her nonprofit, Beauty after the Bars, not the bar scene, not saloons, but jail prison. Okay. This is her nonprofit that she runs that provides mentoring, advocacy, education, and supports racial equity and economic mobility for the communities that disproportionately affected and our most marginalized communities. The Instagram account for Beauty after the Bars. The posts there are a mix of the group's activism and Brown's swimsuit fashion photos. If you haven't seen those yet, they are making the rounds. The group's official website has videos of Brown describing her years in prison, how she gave birth to her youngest daughter while incarcerated. She went to prison twice, and the records showed the charges are mainly cheat property services misdemeanors, felonies the second time around felony use of the fraudulent use of a credit card. The bioprofile also mentions Mecklenburg Sheriff Gary not my fault McFadden multiple times, including stating that brown quote oversees the mentoring program re entry program in partnership with Sheriff Gary McFadden to ensure once the residents are released from jail, they never experience recidivism. In other words, they don't get they don't get re arrested and incarcerated. She's active Democrat voter. Her registration file with the state shows she has voted in dozens of elections following her conviction and prison term. This might be a problem. We do not allow felons to vote in North Carolina. Pat Cannon when he got remember he he got indicted on the bribery charges as mayor, he resigned, he went to prison, but before he went to prison, he voted in the in an election or a primary or something right before he shipped out. After he was a convicted felon. Because I think he pleaded guilty and he got in trouble for that too, and they're like, we may have to revoke his his probation. He you know, report directly to jail, and I think they just like, he's like, oh, it's my mistake. I didn't know. So it is. It's not clear and maybe she did, whether if she ever had her record expunged or if she got a pardon from former Governor Roy Cooper that would that would have restored her voting rights. The governor's clemency page, hosted by Department of Public Safety, has a four h four message. For some time now, no press really of a pardon or Tijuana Brown, or even a mention of her can be found on the governor's official website. She has a lengthy series of court records, though in the state's e court system there are too many to list individually, but they span multiple counties. Items in the cases include charges for worthless checks, using a forged instrument, obtaining property under false pretenses, harassing phone calls, communicating threats, simple assault, and various cases brought against her by the state, employees, credit Union, Safeway, and other entities. In Mecklenburg County. There were numerous cases linked together, including speeding, expired tags, no license, no inspection, no insurance, fictitious or altered registration cards, obtaining a driver's license by fraud, and North Carolina identity or ID card fraud. There's also a set of twenty seventeen cases brought by the North Carolina Department of Revenue for taxes owed in the amount of twenty seven thousand, forty two dollars and another for over sixty five hundred dollars. The case files show nothing has been paid as of two day. This woman is a one person crime wave. Good grief, but she paid this back everybody. She wants everybody to know she paid it back, and therefore she's in the clear. Nobody should be pressing charges against her. She should not be facing indictment. This is just a political attack by a US attorney who's probably racist. Like that's what that's. That's what she and the man that she brought with her to this press conference yesterday. This is what they suggested. He suggested mainly I believe he was he was speaking for her because if she says this stuff, then that can be used against her in court. But he said it, and I think that's intentional. It's we're going to get our message out through this other guy. I think his name is Cedric Dean. I'm not sure, but that was the name on his hat. He had his name on his hat. We'll get into it next, all right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.