Editor’s Note: The Havre Herald updated this story at about 3 p.m. Jan. 29 to reflect a statement by Rocky Boy Public Schools.
A Rocky Boy man who worked as an assistant basketball coach at Stone Child College was arrested Tuesday after officials charged him with sexual abuse of a minor.
Authorities accuse Christopher Brown, born in 1988, of having sex with a minor about 18 years younger. He faces up to 15 years imprisonment.
He was fired Wednesday, according to a press release from Stone Child:
“Stone College is aware that Mr. Brown has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor and it is necessary to terminate Mr. Brown’s employment immediately. There is no place at Stone Child College for any behavior by any employee that jeopardizes the safety and security of our students and community of Rocky Boy.”
Despite federal documents saying Brown also coached at Rocky Boy middle and high school, the superintendent of the district vehemently denies Brown ever coached for the district.
Brown is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Federal court charging documents, which include interviews with Brown and the alleged victim, say Brown had sex with the minor six times between July 2018 and November 2019.
A tribal officer, patrolling the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, discovered Brown’s alleged criminal behavior when the officer noticed a vehicle parked at the rodeo grounds on Jan. 21 at about 11 p.m.
The officer said he considered the car suspicious, since there was no rodeo at the time.
When the officer turned onto the rodeo grounds, the vehicle lights came on and the driver began to drive off. The officer then turned on his emergency lights and pulled over the vehicle.
He discovered Brown driving the vehicle and a girl riding in the passenger seat.
The officer alerted a second officer, then they interviewed Brown and the girl separately.
“Statements provided by Brown and Jane Doe contradicted each other,” court documents read. “Each claimed the other had initiated their meeting that night. ”
Officers took Brown, who had an active warrant, into custody.
The next day, on Jan. 22, an FBI agent interviewed Brown. Waiving his Fifth Amendment right, Brown said he met the girl while coaching and through friends.
His sexual relationship with the girl began in mid-July 2018, a day after he reportedly picked up the girl at her home, according to court documents. He detailed five more sexual encounters with the girl, the last in November 2019.
Brown said he took a one-year break from sex with the minor, telling the agent “he did not like the situation and knew it was wrong.” Furthermore, he said he was paranoid because he knew it was illegal. The burden of knowing what he did was “hard to live with and something [he] thought about consistently,” according to court documents.
That same day, a pediatric sexual forensic medical examiner interviewed the girl at Northern Montana Hospital. She, too, said they had sex six times.
In addition to Stone Child College, federal documents, such as a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, allege Brown also had coaching connections to other schools on Rocky Boy.
The federal criminal complaint document says Brown “was a basketball coach for Rocky Boy Middle School and Rocky Boy High School. ” The DOJ press release says Brown “tutored and helped with coaching basketball at Rocky Boy’s middle and high schools.”
However, Rocky Boy School District Superintendent Voyd St. Pierre strongly denied Brown’s connection to the school in a press release Wednesday afternoon:
“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,” St. Pierre says in the press release. During October and November of 2O18, the superintendent adds, Brown was paid to tutor a total of 24 hours, “working in a public setting with students and other adult tutors in our after-school tutoring program.”
When The Herald asked why the Rocky Boy school officials say this information in the federal document about Brown’s involvement with Rocky Boy school is false, a media spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office said the agency stands by the contents in the document.
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Email Paul Dragu at [email protected]
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