LEWISTON — A former part-time Mexico police officer accused of abducting a 21-year-old woman who was walking to work at McDonald’s last month appeared in court Wednesday.
Joshua Brown, 41, of 86 Leavitt St., Mexico, didn’t enter pleas in 8th District Court to kidnapping and unlawful sexual contact (by compulsion) because they are felony charges that must eventually be brought by a grand jury. He also was charged with misdemeanor sexual contact.
The kidnapping charge is punishable by up to 30 years in prison; felony unlawful sexual contact, five years.
According to an affidavit by Detective Ryan Rawstron, Brown encountered the woman on Lisbon Street in front of the Lewiston Public Library early in the morning of May 24. Brown offered her a ride and she declined.
The second time Brown approached her, he pulled his car in front of her at the intersection of Lisbon and Chestnut streets, got out and, talking hold of her arm and jacket, walked her to the passenger side of his car, Rawstron wrote.
Brown forced the woman to sit in the passenger seat by closing the door while she was between it and the seat. She told police she had said, “No,” to Brown a few times to getting a ride with him, “and was afraid to say anything” more. She told police she didn’t feel Brown would take no for an answer, according to the affidavit.
With the woman in his car, Brown drove to Minot Avenue in Auburn, Rawstron wrote.
During that time, Brown pulled down his jeans and exposed his genitals to the woman. He grabbed her hand and forced her to touch his genitals twice, the second time after she had pulled her hand away, Rawstron wrote.
Brown stopped at a Circle K store around 4 a.m. to get condoms after asking the woman if she would like to have intercourse before work, according to the affidavit.
When Brown was in the store, the woman left the car and talked to a man on the sidewalk, who later described her to police as “crying and visibly upset,” the affidavit said.
Brown left the store without making a purchase and drove off alone, Rawstron wrote.
In an interview with police, Brown said he had been driving around Lewiston because he had been early for work in Portland. Rawstron said Brown first told police he offered the woman a ride only once, then changed his story to say he approached her twice. He said he never got out of his car when he picked her up.
Asked why he left the store without buying anything, Brown said he had forgotten his wallet in his car. He said he saw the woman talking to someone else and “did ask her if she was all set for a ride,” Rawstron wrote. In surveillance video footage, Brown doesn’t appear to say anything to the woman as he leaves the store and walks past her to his car, the detective wrote.
Defense attorney James Howaniec, who appeared with Brown in court Wednesday, said afterward, “My client adamantly denies these charges. His version of events is 180 degrees opposite of the alleged victim’s. We’re really troubled by the information we read in the affidavit. We think there are some inconsistencies on the face of the affidavit alone that raise some major concerns.”
Although Rawstron wrote the woman said she told Brown, “No” when he offered her a ride and she said he “grabbed her arm/jacket and began leading her to the vehicle,” Howaniec said, “We just don’t see evidence of compulsion,” after reading Rawstron’s affidavit.
While free on $10,000 cash bail, Brown is barred from having alcohol or drugs and can be searched and tested if suspected of having violated those conditions. He is prohibited from having any contact with the woman and must not be in Lewiston between 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
According to Mexico Police Chief Roy Hodsdon, Brown was a reserve officer for the department for a few weeks in 2002.
