Philly Candidate For State Legislature Once Served As Notarizing Dupe For Convicted Scammer In Deed Theft Racket; Elderly Among Those Victimized

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Daily News reports:

• Michelle Brownlee, an aide to state Rep. Frank Oliver for 37 years, says she forgot all about the criminal trouble she got into in 2002 until somebody told her the other day that info about the case had been circulating in the 195th District.

• Brownlee was charged with forgery and other crimes in 2002, after she notarized a deed for the sale of an Olney home. The deed held phony signatures from the couple who owned the home but who had been dead for decades, according to court records. Brownlee, who is hoping to replace her retiring boss, said a ward leader got an anonymous call last week about her arrest, then received paperwork from her court case. "I know the perception is bad," said Brownlee, one of seven Democrats on the primary-election ballot. "It's being circulated so I expect somebody is going to use it."

• Brownlee agreed to cooperate against Melvin Lindsey, aka Ali Abu Lumumba, who was being investigated by the District Attorney's Office for using bogus deeds to steal several houses. Brownlee entered the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, meaning her record would be cleared if she stayed out of trouble for six months. "Of course, that was a piece of cake for me," Brownlee said.

• Brownlee said - and the D.A.'s office agreed - that she hadn't profited from Lindsey's scam and had been duped by the conman into notarizing the deeds. She said Lindsey had come into Oliver's district office asking for help with clients who were too elderly to come themselves.

• "Some of the people in the community seemed to think he was a pretty good guy," Brownlee said. "I thought I was doing a community service." The state Constitution says no person "convicted of embezzlement of public moneys, bribery, perjury or other infamous crime" can serve in the General Assembly. The Department of State said that would not apply to Brownlee, since she completed the ARD program and has no conviction.

• Lindsey, now in state prison, ran under the name Lumumba as a Republican for City Council in 1995 and in 1983, and for mayor in 1979 on the Consumer Party line.

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