NewsCrime and Courts

Actions

Brown charged with raping a minor

Christopher Brown of Box Elder
Posted at 5:07 PM, Jan 28, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-29 16:50:32-05

(UPDATE, JANUARY 29) Voyd St. Pierre, the superintendent of Rocky Boy Schools, provided the following information on Wednesday, January 29th:

  • The Department of Justlce's Montana Division issued a press release to the various media outlets on or about January 28, 2020 regarding an allegation of sexual assault by an individual. As noted on the formal U.S. District Court, District of Montana's Criminal Complaint posted on one of the media outlets, it states, 'Brown was a basketball coach for Rocky Boy Middle School and Rocky Boy High School'. Media outlets have also reported that the individual was a coach in our schools. Christopher Brown was NEVER hired, worked as, helped, volunteered, or was associated in any capacity, as a coach in any of the Rocky Boy School's athletic programs. In October and November of 2O18, this individual was compensated as a tutor for a total of 24 hours, working in a public setting with students and other adult tutors in our after-school tutoring program.


(1st REPORT, JANUARY 28) Christopher Brown of Box Elder appeared in federal court in Great Falls on Tuesday on charges that he raped a minor.

U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said in a news release that Brown, 31 years old, was charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

Court records filed by prosecutors accuse Brown of having sex with a minor girl six times from July 2018 through December 2019 on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation. The girl was between the ages of 12 and 16 at the time.

Court documents state:

  • BROWN picked up Jane Doe from her home in his car. They drove around for a little while before parking the car by Rocky Boy High School. Jane Doe asked BROWN if he wanted to have sex. He said, “Not really.” He felt it would not have been good because of their age difference. BROWN recalled Jane Doe was 12 years old at that time and he was 29 or 30. They began kissing and eventually engaged in vaginal sex on the back seat of the car. That was the first of six times BROWN and Jane Doe had sex with each other.
  • BROWN took a one year break from having sex with Jane Doe because he did not like the situation and knew it was wrong. He was paranoid because he knew what he was doing was illegal. The burden of knowing what he did was “hard to live with and something [he] thought about consistently.”
  • During the sixth and final sexual encounter between BROWN and Jane Doe...BROWN used his cell phone to produce a video of this sexual encounter. He did not share the video with anybody.

If convicted, Brown faces up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and five years of supervised release. The case will be presented to a grand jury for an indictment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Johnston presided at the hearing and detained Brown pending further proceedings. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Cobell is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the FBI and the Rocky Boy’s Police Department.

According to Montana Code 45-5-501 , consent to sexual intercourse can not be given by people who are:

  • (i) mentally disordered or incapacitated;
  • (ii) physically helpless;
  • (iii) overcome by deception, coercion, or surprise;
  • (iv) less than 16 years old;

We will update you if we get more information.

NOTE: The information above is from court documents and/or publicly-available information filed in the case, and do not necessarily provide all of the information relevant to the case. Defendants are considered legally innocent until proven guilty in court.