DeAndre and Vinessa Brown face several charges following a new report from the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office detailing how the couple allegedly wasted thousands of dollars.
Deandre oversees the Shelby County Office of Reentry. After his arrest, he was suspended without pay. Vinessa, on the other hand, serves on the board of directors and as secretary of the Memphis-Shelby Crime Commission. When she was arrested, she was asked to step down.
Both Browns operated the nonprofit Lifeline to Success, whose mission is to assist offenders in returning to normal life after incarceration. Deandre served more than two years in prison in the past. He started his nonprofit work after his release.
Governor Bill Lee eventually granted Brown his pardon and put him in his government job. Deandre and Vinessa are now accused of defrauding the organization, according to Fox13.
The Memphis couple is charged with misusing grant funds intended for their nonprofit for their own personal expenses.
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According to WREG, the Browns are indicted on three counts of theft over $250,000, two counts of theft over $60,000, two counts of computer fraud over $60,000, two counts of computer fraud over $10,000, two counts of money laundering, and one count of official misconduct.
The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office said that DeAndre also violated the conflict-of-interest clause as a county employee when the county gave money to his organization.
Action News 5 reported that the pair misappropriated thousands of dollars from 2020 to 2024, according to the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office.
“We saw basically that there was an organization that was serving the two founders, DeAndre Brown and Vinessa Brown,” Tennessee Comptroller Office Director of Communications John Dunn told Action News 5.
“One key stipulation in many of those grant contracts is you can’t use the money to pay yourself,” Dunn added. “You can’t use the money to compensate yourself; you have it to further benefit the mission of your organization.”
The report describes how Lifeline was paid using grant funds from the state of Tennessee, Shelby County, and the City of Memphis. It also records Lifeline bank transfers to the couple’s personal joint account, sometimes via CashApp.
The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office said the couple misappropriated more than $600,000, which they allegedly used to pay themselves, take a trip to Jamaica, buy Grizzlies season tickets and more.
“As we started to really look at what goes on at Lifeline to Success, what we saw frankly was alarming,” Dunn said. “We didn’t see records that people were being helped. We didn’t see records that hundreds of people were served in this organization.”
But some people told Action News 5 that Brown’s work at Lifeline had improved their lives.
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Investigators, however, believe that “responsibility is clear, when you receive public money, when you use public assets, you have a duty to use that most appropriately in this situation, the money should have been spent to provide services to help people who are reentering society,” Dunn said.
Deandre, a former felon, built a name for himself by assisting other offenders in rebuilding their lives after they were released from prison. Now he might go back into prison.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris recently reacted to the case.
“Well, I think the court, actually, will take care of itself,” Harris told Fox 13. “We will soon find out what the results will be and obviously, he is innocent until proven guilty.”
“I’ve been working with him for a long time. I know he’s made an impact on hundreds and hundreds of lives of individuals in Memphis and Shelby County,” Harris added. “I think there are a lot of folks on your website, on your Facebook page that are really commenting about the impact that he’s made. I think those comments stand up, I think they speak for themselves.”
Meanwhile, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office recused itself from the case.
On August 29, a judge ruled that the couple would not be able to post bail until the bond hearing on September 19. The judge and attorneys agreed that before the couple may post bond, the state must confirm the money’s origin.
According to documents, Deandre and Vinessa Brown’s bail was reduced from $1 million and $300,000, respectively, to $100,000.
Both are expected back in court on September 19.
A GoFundMe created to raise money for the couple described them as “Award-winning advocates for criminal justice reform, and pillars of the historic Frayser community, they are also the devoted mother and father of what they like to call “8 Brown kids.”
