Suspended Mt. Pleasant officer faces new charges
A suspended Mt. Pleasant police officer awaiting trial on charges that he assaulted and attempted to rape a woman in 2015 was arrested Thursday on charges related to four other victims.
State police arrested John A. Brown, 44, on four counts of felony involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, two counts of felony aggravated indecent assault and four counts of misdemeanor indecent assault related to incidents that took place in Allegheny, Beaver and Erie counties between March 2014 and October 2015, according to criminal complaints.
Brown, a former part-time officer who lists his home address as Mt. Lebanon, is awaiting trial on charges that he choked a woman after she resisted his sexual advances at another home he owns in Donegal Township in December 2015. Motions in that trial are scheduled for April or May, and he was suspended from the Mt. Pleasant Police Department.
A woman who saw news footage of Brown's arrest on the earlier charges told police she attended a concert in Pittsburgh with Brown the night of March 8, 2014, and went to a bar in Kilbuck with him afterward. He tried to force her to perform a sex act on him in his truck after leaving the bar, the complaint said.
“(The woman) continued to pull away, told Brown to stop repeatedly and attempted to get out of the truck several times, but (the) door was locked and would not open,” according to the complaint.
The next woman said she met Brown at a party at North Park in Pine, Allegheny County on Nov. 20, 2014, and the two connected over their Mt. Lebanon roots. They slipped away to his truck to kiss, but he forced her to perform a sex act on him and sexually assaulted her, the complaint said.
In late February or early March of 2015, another woman said Brown, a firearms instructor for State Security and Investigation Services at the time, was teaching her at a shooting range in Beaver County so she could carry a gun for her job at the same company. He tried to kiss her at the range but she said no. They went to a restaurant after her training was complete and afterward he forced her to perform a sex act on him in his truck, the complaint said.
The same victim also told police Brown sent her vulgar text messages after the assault, and at some point later forced her to perform a sex act again when both were at State Security and Investigation Services's Pittsburgh office.
The final complaint filed Thursday involved a woman who said Brown had come to a State Security and Investigation Services training session in Erie and went to a bar with her afterward. She told investigators Brown groped her leg and genitals several times at the bar and tried to kiss her, but she left, the complaint said.
Two women told police Brown repeatedly insisted that he was “dominant” or their “master” as he assaulted them. All said they feared his imposing size, his gun or his position of authority and connections with the company.
Police filed the charges Thursday with Ligonier District Judge Denise Thiel, who had held him for trial on the previous charges, and took him into custody that afternoon. They were waiting for a judge to arraign him and set his bail later Thursday.
Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6660 or msantoni@tribweb.com.
