Brown Faces Sentencing Today

Bob Brown, a former city councilman and Coeur d’Alene attorney, will be sentenced today for lewd conduct with a minor.

The sentencing is scheduled for 5 p.m. before J. William Hart, a 5th District judge from Minidoka County.

Brown, former chairman of the Kootenai County’s Democratic Central Committee, pleaded guilty in March to molesting his 14-year-old stepgrandson during a visit from California.

According to sheriff’s reports, Brown gave the boy a hug and then initiated oral sex with the youth after an evening of playing Yahtzee in the family room. Brown admitted he had been drinking a great deal and said he regretted what had happened immediately.

Because Brown is a prominent political figure in the Coeur d’Alene community, a prosecutor from the attorney general’s office was appointed and all Kootenai County judges disqualified themselves from the case to avoid a conflict of interest.

In return for Brown’s March guilty plea, deputy attorney general LaMont Anderson agreed to recommend a sentence of three to 10 years in prison and recommend that the court require Brown to spend six months in a sex-offender evaluation program. Depending on the outcome, Brown could then be put on probation or be ordered to serve a prison sentence. The judge is not required to go along with any recommendations.

The maximum penalty for the crime is life in prison.

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