Father of piano quintet 5 Browns admits to sexually abusing daughters
By ANIFriday, February 18, 2011
WASHINGTON - The father of the classical music quintet the 5 Browns has admitted to sexually abusing his three daughters when they were little girls.
Keith Brown, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of sodomy upon a child and two additional counts of sexual abuse in Provo, Utah, days after he was released from the hospital following a dramatic car accident.
“He pleaded guilty,” ABC News quoted Brown’s lawyer, Steven Shapiro, as saying.
“This was the next step in a long process in attempting to accept responsibility for deplorable contact with his daughters that happened many years ago,” he said.
Brown was accused of sodomizing a child younger than 14 between November 1990 and November 1992, according to a criminal complaint filed in court February 10.
He was also accused of molesting his children between March 1997 and March 1998.
A spokesman for the 5 Browns said all three of Brown’s daughters, Desirae, 32, Deondra, 30, and Melody, 26, have chosen to be identified and have cooperated with the investigation.
“There is tremendous relief. The girls handled the situation with such integrity and courage,” group spokesman Kimball Thomson stated.
Under state law, the sodomy charge carries a sentence of 15 years to life and the two lesser abuse charges carry sentences of 1 to 15 years.
Brown’s attorney said he will be sentenced next month and will likely serve the sentences concurrently for 10 to 12 years.
Brown’s lawyer said he confessed to his family and authorities after first confessing to a religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“The important thing is this process began by Brown making admissions to ecclesiastical leaders and then his family,” Shapiro said.
“This prosecution followed those events. He has demonstrated his remorse,” he added.
Soon after the charges were filed, Brown and his wife, Lisa Brown, 54, the musicians’ mother, were involved in a car accident in which Brown totalled their Porsche when he drove off a Utah cliff. (ANI)
