E W Lawson & Son Funeral Home

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The deputies, one a rookie and the other his field training officer, crept out from the darkness and followed the black Nissan Titan pickup for a solid minute before the cruiser’s blue lights lit up the night sky near the Cheyenne Saloon, a biker bar along U.S. Highway 17.More lights, sirens — and a tragedy — were to come, but first, there was a traffic stop. The rookie explained why he pulled the driver over and the motorist explained who he was.Exactly what else happened during the 20 minutes that Johnny Maurice Brown was pulled off to the side during the traffic stop by two Putnam County deputies may never be known. There is no radio traffic about it, no real-time recordings.This much is clear: One minute, Brown, son of longtime Palatka Vice Mayor Mary Lawson-Brown, the first African-American and first woman to hold that office, was sent off with a minor traffic citation. The next, he drove into the path of two people on a motorcycle. Both were killed.Brown, according to prosecutors and the Florida Highway Patrol, was drunk.“I think they let him go because of who he is and who his mother is,” said Dorothy Nunamaker, whose son John Joseph Bartelli died in the crash. “That’s my opinion; however, if it is true or not, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve never been drunk a day in my life.”Brown declined comment; Mary Lawson-Brown did not return a phone call seeking comment. And Brown’s attorney said if Nunamaker’s opinion was accurate, his client would never have been arrested.Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy defended his deputies’ actions: “I can assure you of one thing, those deputies did not knowingly let some drunk leave.”Now the 53-year-old Brown, who has had his fair share of run-ins with the law, faces his toughest legal battle yet. If convicted of the two counts of DUI manslaughter, Brown could be sent to prison for 30 years.But first there has to be a trial. The case, ...