Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's half-brother was sentenced in a Bridgeport federal court Monday for impersonating a federal law enforcement officer.
U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill sentenced Bruce Brown, 47, of Wolcott, to a year and a day in prison and a year of supervised release after that, Deirdre M. Daly, a U.S. attorney in Connecticut, announced in a press release.
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Authorities say Brown stopped boaters off the Connecticut coast last year pretending to be a Coast Guard officer.
But the Coast Guard discharged him from service in April 2002 "under other than honorable conditions," the press release said. He also falsified his dismissal papers to make it appear that he was dismissed honorably as part of his application to State Police for a pistol permit, according to investigators.
Last August, Brown drove into Old Lyme in a Ford Crown Victoria. He was wearing bullet-proof tactical vest with police insignia, which authorities later found in his car along with multiple handcuffs, Transportation Security Administration badge, three handguns, loaded gun magazines and "significant quantities of ammunition including hollow point bullets, a knife and a police tactical baton." When a nearby resident questioned who he was, he responded that he was a United States Coast Guard special agent sent there to "observe a Coast Guard vessel," according to the press release.
During his visit to Old Lyme, Brown's fiancée asked a friend to take him for a boat ride. As the boat was pulling out, Brown told the boat owner “I am commandeering your boat. Your boat is now a U.S. Coast Guard vessel,” according to the release. Brown then asked private citizens on two other boats to show them their boating licenses after telling the boat owner to approach them.
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He also stopped a jet skiier who didn't have his license on him and ordered him to return to the docks, according to the release. Brown had the boat owner bring him back to shore and drove off in a car with flashing lights resembling a police vehicle. After asking the jet skiier for his license, he permitted him to leave.
When police questioned Brown in Old Lyme, he continued the pretense of being a law enforcement officer, stating that the U.S. Coast Guard told him to photogaraph a "Coast Guard cutter" there, according to the release. He later admitted he wasn't an officer and police arrested him.
After posting a bond and being released, Brown threw four other law enforcement badges he had into the Chestnut Hill reservoir and then confessed his actions to police, according to prosecuters. State Police divers later found and recovered the badges.
Police learned in their investigation that Brown also impersonated a police officer specializing in narcotics cases on another occasion in attempt to have a "'scared straight' conversation" with an acquaintance's son and other minors, according to the news release. Identifying himself as Agent Brice and Detective Brice to the teens, he told the mother to stay downstairs while he had a conversation with the teenagers. The mother told investigators she heard yelling and her son later told her that Brown drew his gun and handcuffed him while searching his room.
Brown, gun drawn, escorted another teen to the garage, reappearing later with a backpack containing about $200, a minimal amount of marijuana and a pipe, according to the news release. He told the mother that he had done surveillance on the minors and presented her with the contents of the backpack.
Brown is asking for home detention, saying he has bipolar disorder. Prosecutors say he should serve prison time, which is slated to start July 9.
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General collaborated with the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the Connecticut State Police and Wolcott, Bristol and Southington police on the investigation.
Scott Brown has said he was estranged from Bruce Brown. The Republican lost the Massachusetts seat in 2012 and is running for Senate from New Hampshire.
