Former Mt. Pleasant cop paroled after 2 sexual assault convictions overturned

A former part-time Mt. Pleasant police officer was freed from jail Monday and ordered to serve an additional five years on probation for the sexual assault of a woman eight years ago.

John A. Brown, 50, of Mt. Lebanon was convicted of misdemeanor indecent assault and simple assault offenses based on allegations made by an Irwin woman who claimed she was the victim of an attempted rape in 2015 at a home in Donegal.

Following a four-day trial in 2020, Brown was convicted by a Westmoreland County jury in three sex assault cases: at an Allegheny County bar in 2014, a Donegal home in 2015 and at North Park in Allegheny County during a police-sponsored rib festival, also in 2014. Brown was not on duty as a police officer at those times, prosecutors said.

The jury acquitted Brown of attempted rape and two other felony charges in connection with the case in Donegal.

He was sentenced in May 2021 to serve a total of five to 10 years in prison in all three cases. In December, the Pennsylvania Superior Court overturned convictions related to the two incidents in Allegheny County, saying they were prosecuted in the wrong jurisdiction and ordered he be resentenced for the remaining Westmoreland County case.

According to the appeals court ruling, Brown still can be prosecuted in Allegheny County for the remaining two cases.

Rebecca Spangler, first assistant and chief of staff to Allegheny County District Attorney Steven Zappala Jr., said the cases are being reviewed and a decision about whether to prosecute Brown is to be determined.

Those cases included allegations from a 39-year-old Mt. Lebanon woman who told jurors she read about Brown’s arrest following the Donegal incident and went to police about a similar incident she said occurred a year earlier. The woman testified at trial she met Brown at a wing and rib festival at North Park in September 2014, when she agreed to go with him to his parked vehicle and he assaulted her.

A third woman testified she was sexually assaulted by Brown outside an Emsworth bar in 2014.

Prosecutors declined to seek additional jail time for Brown during Monday’s hearing.

“It would be disingenuous to ask for additional incarceration,” said Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio resentenced Brown to serve nine to 23 months in jail in the Donegal case, but gave him credit for two years he served behind bars after his arrest and another two years while incarcerated following his trial.

The judge also sentenced Brown to serve an additional five years on probation and ordered he immediately be released from jail.