Metro board OKs officer’s settlement

Keith Paul

Monday, June 25, 2001 | 10:33 a.m.

The Metro Police fiscal oversight board this morning approved a $235,000 payout to an officer who was charged with but was later cleared of drug crimes.

The fiscal affairs committee approved the settlement to Officer Jon Aaron Brown without comment. Three of the five members attended the meeting, and the vote was unanimous.

The settlement ends a discrimination and retaliation complaint Brown filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Brown, who nearly died from a drug overdose in May 1999, was criminally charged with drug trafficking and being under the influence of drugs. An internal investigation recommended that he be fired.

But after a District Court jury in January returned a verdict of not guilty and more information about the incident came out during the trial, the internal investigation was reopened and, in April, Brown was cleared of any internal offenses.

Brown had been on administrative leave with pay for nearly two years until he was cleared of the criminal and internal charges.

Brown's trouble started May 25, 1999, when he spent the night partying. After a night of drinking, a woman who was with Brown called 911. She said Brown was unconscious and had taken gamma hydroxybutyrate, commonly known as GHB, and Ecstasy at her apartment.

At the time of the incident, police searched the woman's apartment and found materials used to make GHB and 108 grams of the drug inside a water bottle. She later cut a deal with prosecutors and testified against Brown.

Brown maintained he accidentally drank the GHB, which was in a container in the woman's refrigerator, and believes someone slipped Ecstasy into his drink at a bar.