Sex assault trial for former Mt. Pleasant cop to start this week

The trial of a former Mt. Pleasant part-time police officer charged with the sexual assaults of six women will begin Tuesday in Westmoreland County.

Jurors were selected Monday to hear the cases against John Andrew Brown of Mt. Lebanon, who first was arrested in 2016 in connection with an accusation made in late 2015 by a woman who claimed she was choked and then subjected to an attempted rape in a home Brown owned in Donegal Township.

According to court records, the woman said Brown identified himself as a police officer and he became physical after she rejected his sexual advances.

Brown, at that time, worked as a part-time officer in Mt. Pleasant. Mt. Pleasant officials said Brown was fired after he was charged.

In March 2017, state police charged Brown with rape and other offenses in connection with sexual assault allegations raised by five other women: three in Allegheny and one each in Erie and Beaver counties, that are alleged to have occurred in 2014 and 2015. Prosecutors said circumstances of each of the alleged assaults were similar to the original case reported in Westmoreland County but occurred in other locations.

Brown sought to have just the initial case prosecuted in Westmoreland County but a judge last year ruled that all six cases were based on a continuing set of circumstances and all should be presented to the same jury. The trial was delayed as defense attorneys unsuccessfully appealed the ruling that consolidated all six cases against Brown.

The trial before Westmoreland County Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio will begin Tuesday with opening statements and testimony. The trial is expected to take about a week to complete and prosecutors previously said they expect to present about a dozen witnesses during the trial.

Brown served about two years in jail after he was first charged but, according to court records, has been free since he posted bond in April 2019.