News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Former Deschutes County Sheriff Greg Brown pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday, October 16, to three felony charges stemming from his embezzlement of more than $575,000 from the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office and the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District.
Brown, 49 and a resident of Sisters, faces up to 10 years in prison for each count, including Federal Program Fraud, Money Laundering and Interstate Transportation of Stolen Funds.
According to United States Attorney John Ray, "Brown admitted in papers filed with the court that he began embezzling funds from Deschutes County and the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office within a month after being elected Sheriff of Deschutes County in 1996."
Brown embezzled a total of $171,189.34 from the county -- stealing more than $150,000 between July 6, 2000 and November 14, 2000, during his unsuccessful re-election campaign.
According to the U.S. Attorney, Brown used some of the embezzled funds to pay campaign bills; other funds were used to make mortgage payments on a condominium in Newport, to fund part of a $400,000 certificate of deposit and to pay personal living expenses.
Vendors for Brown's campaign had no knowledge that the funds used to pay them were embezzled by Brown, the U.S. Attorney stated.
Brown also admitted embezzling $403,431.49 from the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District, starting in January 1995.
Brown served on the board since 1985 and served many years as president. He also acted as a grant writer for the district.
The district agreed Wednesday to accept $390,378.16 as restitution. Brown's plea agreement stipulates a total of $561,567.50 in restitution, including the county.
RFPD Board President Stephen Spear said the realization of Brown's actions has been extremely painful to those who knew and trusted.
"I feel a strong sense of betrayal," Spear said. "It makes you potentially distrust everyone and I don't want to go there."
Spear said the board and district personnel trusted Brown completely for "who and what we all thought he stood for" as a public servant and police officer.
That trust was badly misplaced.
According to the U.S. Attorney, Brown admitted that he embezzled from four separate fire district bank accounts. He deposited funds in Brown's Sabbatical Air account at Oregon Telco Credit Union and into several personal accounts.
Brown covered his tracks by writing checks to entities that would not appear suspicious to the RFPD Board, the U.S. Attorney noted. Sometimes, he falsified the payee.
In one case, the U.S. Attorney reported, "Brown generated a check #8700 in the amount of $3,000 payable to MBNA and deposited it into one of his personal accounts at MBNA America Bank, Wilmington, Delaware.
"Upon receipt of the Fire District's copy of the check from the bank, Brown changed the payee to Deschutes County 9-1-1, made a duplicate copy of the altered check and placed it into Fire District records.
"Brown then destroyed the original copy which had the true payee of MBNA. Thus, if anyone would review the Fire District's records, check #8700 dated April 30, 1997, would reflect a payee of Deschutes County 9-1-1."
The funds from Sisters-Camp Sherman RFPD were commingled with funds embezzled from the sheriff's office and used the same way, the U.S. Attorney reported.
The embezzlement was initially uncovered by the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office after Brown left office and the case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Oregon Department of Justice and the Deschutes County District Attorney's Office.
Brown will be sentenced on February 19, 2003. Brown could not be reached for comment.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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