Officer Jeff Brown Being Investigated Again

Oregon Police Officer Jeff Brown, who was suspended last year following an internal affairs investigation involving several women, was put on paid administrative leave late last month.

Mayor Mike Seferian said police are looking at whether Brown, the son of former Mayor Marge Brown, violated department rules, but would not disclose details because the matter is under investigation.

“Pending the outcome of the investigation, we just put him on administrative leave,” said Seferian.

It is the latest police department investigation of Brown.

He received disciplinary action last year as the result of an investigation that stretched back seven years. He was suspended for 20 days for his repeated and illegal use of the Law Enforcement Automated Data System (LEADS) to gain information about an ex-girlfriend over a two year period.

In addition to the 20-day suspension, Brown received a verbal reprimand for interfering in the private business or affairs of another woman, Vicky Ferris, a teacher at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns Elementary School. Ferris contacted police to complain that Brown had allegedly portrayed her as a convicted felon.

Brown was blocked from using the Northwest Ohio Regional Information System (NORIS) and LEADS for six months and was suspended from the Special Response Team (SRT) for six months.

Allegations that Brown had sex with a woman while he was on duty in 2002 were substantiated by the investigation, but were dismissed because of the absence of a report on the matter.

Nichole Rhoades had alleged 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.

The report, issued last September 4, couldn’t have come at a worse time for Brown’s mother, who ran against Seferian for a third term last November. She said at the time that the investigation had been politically motivated. Seferian said he had nothing to do with the investigation, which was started by Stager several months before the election.

Seferian, a long time councilman, beat Brown 61.17 percent to 38.83 percent of the vote and in each of the city’s 19 precincts.