Saturday, December 17, 2011

The black son of Bermuda's former Premier has been jailed for 12 years and eight months for a string of sex attacks on vulnerable women

Dr Kevin Brown, who ran a medical practice in Los Angeles, was found guilty of 21 charges including sexual battery by fraud, sexual exploitation by a physician, sexual penetration with a foreign object and committing a lewd act upon a child. He had pleaded not guilty to 30 felony counts including forcible rape. The attacks on nine patients - including a 15-year-old girl - took place at Brown's surgery during routine medical check-ups between 2003 and 2008. At the sentencing, Brown was also ordered to pay $18,000 in fines and penalties to his victims. He must also register as a sex offender for life. During his trial in July 2011, prosecutors said that Brown, 40, ran his Crenshaw Boulevard practice as his personal playground and viewed female patients as his prey. The married black father had faced similar charges in 2004 and 2006 but was acquitted on both those occasions. However, he was arrested yet again in July 2008 after assaulting an undercover police officer posing as a patient. The police sting operation had been launched a year earlier after detectives received yet another complaint against Brown. The female officer, who made an appointment with Brown for an injured ankle, testified that Brown lifted up her shirt and bra and fondled her breast during an examination. The assault was recorded on monitoring equipment worn by the detective and played back to the jury during Brown's trial. The trial jury also heard how other patients were given inappropriate pelvic and breast examinations. One victim who visited Brown to be evaluated for weight loss treatment said that she had her breasts fondled and Brown also nuzzled his face in the breasts of another victim and sucked on her nipples, the court heard. Deputy District Attorney Ann-Marie Wise has estimated that Brown could get a maximum term of 16 years and ten months in state prison for his crimes. Just weeks before his 2008 arrest, Brown - whose father Ewart Brown was Premier of Bermuda between 2006 and 2010 - organized a celebrity poker tournament at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in support of his own charity, the Urban Health Institute. Actor Don Cheadle, reality TV star Khloe Kardashian and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner were among the celebrity guests, as was Brown's father. The charity, which has now been disbanded, later came under scrutiny after it was revealed that only a small proportion of its funds was ever spent on the needy. Brown had to post $4million bail following his arrest because LA authorities were concerned that he could abscond to Bermuda while awaiting trial. He is now being probed by white-collar crime investigators over allegations that he defrauded a national health insurance scheme. Kevin Brown is the second of Ewart Brown's four sons to be jailed. Younger son Maurice Pitt, 29, is currently serving a ten-year sentence in California for armed robbery.

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