A woman’s complaint earlier this year against Oregon Police Officer Jeff Brown, Mayor Marge Brown’s son, led to a police department investigation of the officer that stretched back over seven years, Police Chief Rick Stager told The Press this week.

“We went back that far when we got the initial complaint from Vicki Ferris. We had heard rumors about other things,” said Stager.

Brown was disciplined as a result of the investigation that showed he had abused his authority as an officer with several women.

Ferris, a teacher at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns School, contacted police on May 28, 2009, to complain that Brown had allegedly portrayed her as a convicted felon and provided a third party with a court document that supported the allegation, according to a report on the investigation that was released by the police department on Sept. 4. Ferris stated she had been called into the principal’s office and questioned about the allegation and whether she should be allowed to teach.
 
Brown had an affair with Ferris’s sister-in-law, Tanya Hernandez. Ferris believed Brown was making the allegations because she had told Hernandez that Brown “was taking advantage of her and would not be leaving his wife,” states the report.

Told the mayor
Ferris further stated “she was very agitated by this matter and had actually called the mayor to complain about Jeff,” according to the report.
 
Brown was also suspended for 20 days for using a police Law Enforcement Automated Data System (LEADS) computer on Hernandez over a two year period, according to the report. LEADS gives police access to national criminal justice databases.
 
On June 12, 2009, a LEADS audit showed there were numerous inquiries on Hernandez. In November 2006, Brown ran Hernandez three times in a 12 day period.
 
“This would be the approximate time that the two began their relationship,” states the report.
 
Hernandez was run an additional eight times by Brown over the course of the next two-and-a-half years.
 
“She was run once in June 2007, and once on Christmas Eve in 2008, about the time their relationship terminated,” states the report.
 
Brown ran Hernandez six times since the beginning of 2009, states the report.
 
“She was run most recently in the early morning hours of May 26, 2009,” followed by another run six hours later the same morning by Officer Bruce Huer, who stopped Hernandez for a suspended driver’s license and had her vehicle towed.
 
Hernandez, according to the report, suspected Brown had told Huer about her suspended driver’s license. Huer told investigators Brown told him he had run plates in the lot where her car was parked the previous evening and that the registrations check on her vehicle showed the registered owner of the vehicle was suspended. Huer did a record check to confirm she was under suspension. Huer was asked by Assistant Chief Paul Magdich, who conducted the investigation on Brown, whether Brown had told him Hernandez was a former girlfriend. Huer stated he had not.
 
“The times that she was run would support the allegation that a law enforcement purpose was not the driving force behind this use of the LEADS terminal,” states the report.
 
Brown will be blocked from using the Northwest Ohio Regional Information System (NORIS) and LEADS for six months and has been suspended from the Special Response Team (SRT) for six months, states the report.

Sex on the playground
The report dismissed allegations that Brown had sex with a woman while on duty in 2002 because an investigative report on the matter conducted by former Police Chief Thomas Gulch could not be found.
 
Nichole Rhoades told police she and Brown had sex in Fire Station No. 2 on Wheeling Street, at the Comfort Inn, in the playground area of New Harvest Church on Seaman Road, and in the parking lot of Coy School on Wheeling Street while Brown was on duty.
 
Gulch, who was fired by Mayor Brown in 2005, had conducted an investigation into the allegations involving Ms. Rhoades, states in the report.
 
“It appears my predecessor knew about these complaints and conducted an investigation,” states Stager in the report. “However, to this date, I have not located any investigative report into this matter.” To punish Brown for an investigation that was conducted several years ago would probably violate Brown’s contractual rights, an agreement with the City of Oregon and the Oregon Police Patrolmen’s Association, states the report.
 
Rhoades had contacted Gulch, who told her Brown would be suspended for three days, states the report. Rhoades’ father, Tom Rhoades, telephoned Gulch expressing his concern that Brown was “using poor judgment dating his daughter, who is just out of high school.”
 
Lt. Brian Andrzejewski had mentioned to Chief Gulch about police reports filed relating to Rhoades and Brown several years ago, states the report.
 
“Chief Gulch told Lt. Andrzejewski that he would take care of the complaints.”
 
By Wednesday, five days after the report was issued, Stager had doubts whether Gulch even conducted an investigation.
 
“Gulch told Rhoades he suspended Brown for three days, which apparently never took place. I’m not even sure there was even an investigation. I have no idea why. The whole thing is pretty messed up,” said Stager. “The sex on duty charge happened seven years ago. It is now a `he said, she said,’ thing. I could not punish Brown for something without a report.
 
Stager said Gulch should have investigated earlier complaints against Brown more thoroughly.
 
“I don’t know why nothing was done back then,” said Stager. Andrzejewski told Stager that Gulch called Rhoades “a lunatic.”
 
“It appears there was some type of investigation but there is no documentation,” said Stager. “Police reports were filed, there were indications about other allegations. We looked at all of it and, frankly, it was pretty easy to find the information. It should have been very easy seven years ago.”
 
The investigative report on Brown comes just days before Oregon’s Sept. 15 mayoral primary in which his mother, who is facing opposition from Councilman Mike Seferian, and grocer Marvin Dabish, is seeking a third term. Officer Brown, Gulch and Magdich could not be reached for comment.
 
Mayor Brown blamed her opponents for digging up dirt on her son.
 
“It has torn into my daughter-in-law’s heart again, brought up all the wounds from seven-and-a-half years ago, which they had worked through,” she said. “As a mother, I’m hurt.”
 

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