Ex-Officer Faces 65 New Sex Counts

A former Riverside police officer will be charged with 65 counts of felony child molestation and child abuse involving four Riverside boys from 1998 to 2000, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The charges against the officer, Adam James Brown, 31, will include two counts of child endangerment for allowing boys to play with his handgun, according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office.

The charges come after a two-month investigation by Riverside police into allegations against the six-year police veteran. Detectives say they found photographs and videotapes showing Brown engaging in sex acts with the children, all of whom were younger than 14.

Separately, federal authorities in Wisconsin have charged Brown, a former substitute teacher, with traveling to that state to have sex with children. The FBI arrested Brown on Feb. 10, alleging he flew to Wisconsin to engage in a variety of sex acts with four children, ages 8 to 11, along with another man at a remote motel in Beaver Dam. The meetings were arranged by a third man, identified by authorities as the leader of a child pornography ring.

Brown is being held without bail in a federal jail in Wisconsin, where he faces four counts of first-degree sexual assault.

Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach said Wednesday that detectives in his sexual-abuse unit began investigating Brown the day after his arrest in Wisconsin, when he resigned from the department.

“We seized some overwhelming, graphic evidence that absolutely connected ownership [of the filmed images] to [Brown],” Leach said.

Supervising Deputy Dist. Atty. Allison Nelson said she would file a warrant for Brown to be returned to Riverside County for prosecution “once the charges by the state and federal agencies in Wisconsin are resolved.... How long [Brown’s return to Riverside] will take, I don’t know.”

Nelson said the investigation in Riverside was continuing, adding that there was a “good chance” that Brown, who lived in Riverside for 10 years, molested other children in the city. She urged any alleged victims to contact the Riverside Police Department. Nelson said the four boys in the Riverside County case had provided statements describing how Brown allegedly molested them.

Though Brown’s alleged acts did not occur while he was on duty as a patrol officer or while serving as a substitute teacher, Nelson said he initially befriended the boys possibly by introducing himself as a police officer.

Among the counts Brown faces, 31 are for using force or violence during his molestation of his first victim in Riverside, Nelson said.

“The tremendous disappointment and outrage this department felt when he was first arrested remains,” Leach said. “It’s like a priest or teacher doing this. People approach these people for help and comfort.”