He was making more money than ever — his tax return for 2002 showed an adjusted gross income of $1.8 million; by 2009, he was making ten times that. He had even updated the "Daddy's baby girl" commercial to include his new family, identifying himself as the "retired" founder of the Brown Hand Center.
He threw around enough money to rub shoulders with important people; he and Rachel entertained Texas Senator John Whitmire, chair of the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee, at a private lunch in their home; he contributed enough money to the National Republican Congressional Committee to receive the Congressional Medal of Distinction, the political equivalent of throwing your own surprise birthday party. For this, he, Rachel, and a few hundred other big-time contributors got to join President George W. Bush for dinner at the White House. (Whitmire would later claim he had no clue about Brown's background.)
By Mandy Oaklander
Seen leaving the courtroom during his latest trial, Dr. Michael Brown was acquitted of assaulting his latest wife.
By Mandy Oaklander
In a dramatic gesture after the trial, attorney Dick DeGuerin cut off Brown's ankle bracelet.
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READ MORE:
FEATURE: The Good Doctor -- Michael Brown made it big in the hand clinic business. But as his wife discovered, there was a much darker side to this dynamic surgeon.
FESTURE: Taking His Medicine -- Troubled hand surgeon Michael Brown pursues custody of his two children
BLOG POSTS: Previous coverage of Dr. Michael Brown
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He also wrote big checks for the Star of Hope homeless shelter and Toys for Tots. In a stunning bit of irony, he sponsored a 2005 gala for the Bridge Over Troubled Waters Women's Shelter.
Yet as he grew wealthier, he seemed to grow more paranoid. He eventually hired 24-hour security personnel, including bodyguards who escorted his children to school.
Unlike Darlina's, Rachel's story is more difficult to understand, since she knew what she was getting into when she hooked up with Michael Brown. Some of it might be that, growing up, she only seemed to know abusive men.
According to a psychiatrist's notes filed in Harris County District Court, Rachel was born to a 16-year-old girl whose spouse split a year later. Rachel would never meet her father until he suddenly appeared in her life when she was 20; in the meantime, she dealt with an abusive, alcoholic stepfather. When she was 14, she'd had enough and left home, living with friends. She got pregnant at 24 and went back to her office job two days after the baby was born, keeping her daughter under her desk. The girl's father was abusive toward Rachel, and later wound up in prison.
Fortunately for all involved, Michael Glyn Brown was there to pick up the pieces.
For much of the marriage, Rachel proved her alliance, standing by his side, both in the updated commercial, where she looked as glassy-eyed as one of Brown's taxidermied animals, or in court, where she testified for Brown when he sued Darlina for custody of their two daughters in 2005. She testified despite the fact that she told Houston police two years earlier that Brown had tried to kill her during an argument. She subsequently filed for divorce, then withdrew the papers, and chalked everything up to a misunderstanding.
It was a pattern that would repeat itself throughout their marriage. In 2006, Rachel accused him of domestic violence and of ripping a video camera out of her hands when she tried to document her injuries. She would also tell Houston police that she wanted to get out of the marriage but was afraid; that Brown forced her to do drugs under threat of killing the entire family; and that he had made her and a female friend "reenact an incident with his ex-wife when there was a gun involved."
Then, in August 2010, another allegation of abuse was taken seriously enough by the Harris County District Attorney's Office. Brown was charged with assault — ordinarily a misdemeanor, but, because of the 2001 assault, it was enhanced to a felony charge. He faced up to ten years in prison.
As far as Brown's history is concerned, it was one of the more benign allegations: Rachel accused him of throwing a variety of things — including a Humane Society humanitarian award — at her during an argument, and then twisting her arm and bending it behind her back. And even that was watered down when Brown's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, managed to amend the indictment to leave out the bending-behind-her-back part. Bottom line: Brown was accused of yanking his wife's arm. It was a dog of a case.
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Because Rachel testified and Brown didn't, it was her life that was dragged through mud and not his.
Although Brown had received only probation for assaulting Darlina, the Texas Criminal Code considered it a conviction for the purposes of prosecuting another assault. Jurors were told only that he had been previously convicted; they did not hear the details of that incident. They didn't hear that one of the two prosecutors in the case, Jane Waters, testified in the Browns' divorce proceedings that the Harris County District Attorney's Office received a tip that Brown was attempting to hire someone to kill Rachel.
Instead, what they heard was a story about Brown pocket-dialing Rachel's phone, getting her voice mail and leaving a cryptic dialogue between Brown and a giggling woman. Brown was heard saying something about him and the woman being "smarter bears." They heard about Brown coming home late at night or early in the morning after Rachel received that call and falling asleep in a chair, only to be startled awake by a clearly out-of-control and jealous wife demanding to know who he had been with.
