Judge: former Deschutes County detective guilty in sexual image, misconduct case

Published 5:15 am Friday, December 1, 2023

A judge found a former Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office detective guilty of two counts of official misconduct.

Ron Brown, 59, was found guilty Wednesday of transferring sexual pictures and videos of a man and his girlfriend to his personal cellphone while investigating the man’s suicide.

Judge Annette C. Hillman, the presiding judge in Crook and Jefferson counties, also ruled that Brown illegally directed the woman into his patrol car, where authorities say he was watching pornography and had an erection.

After a two-day trial this week, Hillman found Brown — who waived his right to a jury trial — not guilty of one count of first-degree official misconduct and the unlawful dissemination of an intimate image.

Brown worked for the sheriff’s office for more than two decades and pleaded not guilty to all counts. Now, he could face a maximum of two years in jail, said Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels.

“I’m happy with this outcome,” said Gunnels.

First police misconduct conviction

The verdict represents the first time that the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office under Gunnels has won a conviction in a police misconduct case.

Deschutes County district attorney dismisses charges in Bend Police brutality case

Deschutes County district attorney dismisses charges in Bend Police brutality case

It comes about a week after the district attorney’s office dismissed criminal charges against a Bend Police officer, who was accused of assaulting a man during a June 2021 arrest. The prosecution failed in large part because one of the two officers who reported the accused officer was later found to be untruthful in a separate case and was disqualified from testifying.

The district attorney’s office is also criminally investigating a Deschutes County jail lieutenant and a Deschutes County deputy who resigned in September.

Each was placed on leave amid internal investigations by the sheriff’s office.

Embattled Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputy on leave pending criminal investigation

Embattled Deschutes County Sheriff’s deputy on leave pending criminal investigation

Gunnels said it’s rare for law enforcement officers to be found guilty of crimes committed while on duty, as in Brown’s case. The sheriff’s office opened an internal affairs investigation into Brown and placed him on leave on Jan, 12, 2022. Brown then retired.

“I think the vast majority of police officers don’t need this message,” Gunnels said. “But this is a strong message and a bad way for somebody to choose to end their career.”

Brown’s attorneys, Kirsten Curtis and Daniel Thenell, could not be reached for comment.

Brown’s case

The case stemmed from a Sept. 28, 2021, death investigation Brown responded to on Choctaw Road in Deschutes River Woods.

During the investigation, a woman asked Brown to delete sexual images of her and her boyfriend from her boyfriend’s phone. Brown instead transferred these images onto his own phone, prosecutors said.

Hillman’s ruling affirmed that Brown did this for sexual gratification, but she also ruled that it didn’t amount to “dissemination” and prosecutors didn’t prove he distributed any images “with the intent to harass, humiliate, or injure” the woman.

About two months later, the woman was being evicted from the room where she lived in the Sugarloaf Mt. Motel in Bend, but management wasn’t allowing her inside to retrieve her belongings, prosecutors said. She called Brown, who she trusted because of his investigation into her boyfriend’s suicide, prosecutors said.

Brown obliged and went to the motel while on duty, prosecutors said. They alleged he told motel management he was there on “law enforcement business” and retrieved the woman’s belongings.

Hillman ruled that Brown did not try to help this woman while on duty for sexual reasons.

Then, Brown called the woman and asked her to meet him in the parking lot of a Shari’s Restaurant in south Bend. When she did, he told her to get in the car. Hillman ruled that he did this for sexual reasons.

Attorneys are awaiting a date for a sentencing hearing.