Edwin Seth Brown Enters Not-Guilty Plea

NEWHALL —  Edwin Seth Brown, director of the Samuel Dixon Health Center and a prominent Santa Clarita Valley community activist, Thursday pleaded not guilty to two felony counts that he falsified court documents.

Brown’s arrest in December shocked many in the area. In 1994, Brown was voted Man of the Year by Castaic and served on its town council.

Brown, 44, was arraigned on charges he allegedly prepared and presented documents to a court crediting two friends with more court-imposed community service hours than they had completed and attempted to mislead the court about where the two men completed their service, according to court records.

Jay Kapac and John Milton Campbell were ordered to work off their community service at the clinic, records show, but Kapac told sheriff’s deputies that he did most of his work at Brown’s home. Brown declined to comment on his case.

Kapac had been ordered to perform community service as a condition on a marijuana conviction, and Campbell on a theft conviction.

In court Thursday, Brown’s attorneys told the judge that they needed more time before a preliminary hearing to prepare their case, saying they intended to call 20 witnesses.

They also requested that the documents Brown allegedly falsified be turned over to them as part of the discovery process. The prosecution “said they didn’t know if they had them,” said Ashley Posner, one of Brown’s attorneys.

Judge H. Keith Byram ordered the prosecution to turn over the documents within 10 days and granted the defense’s request for extra time. Byram scheduled the preliminary hearing for March 6.