Brown Pleads Guilty To Molestation Former Cda Councilman Faces Uncertain Future
Bob Brown, a former city councilman and Coeur d’Alene attorney, pleaded guilty Monday to lewd conduct with a minor.
In doing so, the 60-year-old community activist admitted that he had molested his 14-year-old step-grandson.
“I gave him a hug. We then started some activity that was extremely inappropriate,” Brown told Judge J. William Hart. “In no way was it his fault. I regretted what had happened immediately.”
Brown, former chairman of Kootenai County’s Democratic Central Committee, was charged with lewd conduct last May after an incident during the previous summer was reported to police.
According to a Kootenai County sheriff’s report, Brown’s step-grandson from California visited Brown and his wife, Anne Salisbury-Brown, in August 1995.
The three spent an evening playing a game of Yahtzee. Salisbury-Brown then went to bed, leaving the boy and Brown alone.
“We were talking in the family room. I had been drinking a great deal that night,” Brown said.
Brown then initiated oral sex with the youth, according to the sheriff’s report. When the boy returned to California, he eventually told his mother what had happened.
Because of Brown’s prominence in Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas asked that the state attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to avoid a conflict of interest.
All Kootenai County judges also disqualified themselves from the case.
J. William Hart, a 5th District judge from Minidoka County, came to Coeur d’Alene Monday to take Brown’s guilty plea.
At the hearing, Hart asked Brown numerous questions to make sure he understood the consequences of his decision to plead guilty.
He asked if Brown understood the maximum penalty - life in prison.
“Yes, my attorney has described it in excruciating detail,” Brown responded.
When Hart asked why Brown was pleading guilty, he said
“I believe the facts…are correct. I see no reason to involve anyone in a long trial.”
In return for Brown’s guilty plea, deputy attorney general LaMont Anderson agreed to recommend a sentence of three to 10 years in prison.
Anderson also agreed to recommend that the court “retain jurisdiction” for 180 days. That would mean that Brown would spend six months in a sex-offender evaluation program. Depending on how he did, Brown then could be placed on probation or be ordered to serve his prison sentence.
At the sentencing hearing, however, the judge will not be required to go along with any recommendations. A sentencing date has not been set.
At the end of Monday’s hearing, Brown signed an agreement saying he would register as a sex offender. He declined to comment after the court hearing.
Brown, who is a private attorney working in Coeur d’Alene, could face disciplinary action from the Idaho State Bar as well.
Bar Commission rules say any lawyer convicted of a serious crime has to report themselves to the Idaho State Bar within 14 days, said Michael J. Oths, bar counsel.
Brown could face action ranging from a reprimand to disbarment by the Idaho Supreme Court.
Anne Salisbury-Brown, grandmother of the boy, was granted a divorce from Bob Brown in January. The two had no children of their own.
Brown was a Coeur d’Alene city councilman from 1982 to 1985 and spent much of his time in office fighting to save Lake Coeur d’Alene’s shorelines from development.
From 1972 to 1985 Brown worked at North Idaho College, serving part of that time as the assistant director of vocational education. Brown also served on the Idaho Commission on the Arts and was active in the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.
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