March 3, 2022 |
Saratoga Town Council on Tuesday fired former police officer Justin Brown at the conclusion of a pre-determination hearing on alleged misconduct.
Brown’s defense team brought an interesting strategy to the courtroom-like hearing. The suspended officer agreed to hold the hearing in public rather behind closed doors in executive session, but Brown never testified on his own behalf. The strategy may have been a ploy for witnesses against Brown to go on record ahead of his pending criminal trial. Brown faces a felony charge of intimidating or interfering with a police officer. Mayor Creed James gave Brown the option to enter executive session so the testimony could be kept private. Brown declined.
Pictured above: Saratoga Town Council hearing regarding now former police officer Justin Brown. Photo by Jim O’Reilly/Bigfoot 99.
The evidence and 90-minutes of testimony that followed was damning for Brown. Town Attorney Jane France immediately called for Brown’s termination. France detailed the charges against Brown, which included unlawfully objecting to a daytime warrant that Sgt. Opfar with the Carbon County County Sheriff’s office tried to serve after dark on New Year’s Eve.
The warrant required Brown to turn over one of his K9 police dogs, Shaw, which had bitten a family member on December 18th. France said because of threats made by Brown, the warrant was not served. Subsequently, an arrest warrant for Brown was issued nearly a month later on January 27th. It’s unclear why the warrant was issued four weeks after the alleged offense. Brown was arrested on February 9th on felony a charge of intimidating and interfering a law enforcement officer, and three misdemeanor counts. He was booked into the county jail and released within hours after posting bail.
To support her case, France presented footage taken from Sgt. Opfar’s body camera the night he tried to serve the warrant and confiscate the dog, Shaw. Sitting in his cruiser parked across the street from Brown’s residence in Saratoga, Opfar called the officer and recorded the call. Brown sounds agitated as he objects to the grounds for the warrant which was drawn up using testimony provided from his estranged wife, Amanda Brown.
The conversation lasted about nine minutes, with Brown ultimately saying Shaw was in Colorado. During testimony after the video played, Sgt. Opfar said Saratoga Police Officer Tyler Christen was standing next to him during the call. In fact, Opfar said he used Christen’s phone to make the call. Opfar said he brought Brown’s fellow officer to provide a calming influence during what was expected to be a tense situation. The recording, however, shows that Christen never joined the call or spoke to Brown. Police Chief Kenneth Lehr testified that he went home after his shifted ended that day. Lehr admitted that he did not attempt to reassure his employee about the intent of the warrant or assist in providing a smooth handover of the dog. Brown was concerned that Shaw would be destroyed.
As the videotape of the phone call shows, Brown’s emotional tone eventually settled down and the conversation with Opfar became less heated and more civil.
As shocking as Brown’s language and demeanor may have appeared at times, Michael Bennett, Brown’s attorney dismissed them as not being unusual given the circumstances. Bennett characterized it as “locker room talk,” the kind of bravado two alpha males working for competing law enforcement agencies might say to each other in a heated exchange. Bennett said cops have a “tough job” and emotions run high sometimes. The attorney added that his client wasn’t guilty of anything.
The two attorneys examined and cross examined Opfar and Chief Lehr. Questions for the county deputy focused on why the daytime warrant was served after dark on a holiday. The exact time of day of Opfar’s attempt to serve the warrant was contested, as was the accuracy of the timestamp on his body cam. Bennett also asked why the warrant was served after the required 10-day quarantine time for the dog had elapsed. Opfar’s response was vague. The dog bite occurred on December 18th. Many of Bennett’s questions likely will be asked again in the criminal trial.
During Lehr’s testimony, the chief said “yes” when Bennett asked if Brown was “generally a good police officer.” Bennett told council in his closing comments that Brown deserved to be disciplined, but not fired and have his career destroyed because of the incident.
In the end, questions surrounding the service of the warrant, as well as the legal grounds for it, or even Brown’s track record as a police officer with no previous incidents did not help his case with town council. Although council regularly tables discussions to await more information, council reached its decision behind closed doors in 45 minutes. After meeting in executive session, the governing body emerged from behind closed doors and voted unanimously to fire Brown.
We asked Bennett, who was asked into the closed door session briefly, if the council gave any reason for their decision to terminate Brown.
Brown is scheduled to appear in court on March 23rd for a preliminary hearing on the felony and misdemeanor charges. Bigfoot 99 has noticed that the blue light bulb on Brown’s front porch has been removed and replaced with a regular color one.
The change echoed what Brown’s attorney said during his opening comments. “A thin blue line exists until it doesn’t.”
Related: Saratoga Town Council votes unanimously to terminate Brown
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