UPDATE, SEPT. 29, 3:34 P.M.: Prosecutors announced the charges against, possible sentence looming for and circumstances of the alleged crime linked to Christopher Andrew Brown. The 42-year-old Orange resident, who law enforcement claims travels the country to lure teenage girl victims through his photography business and private children's gymnastics coaching, is charged with felony possession and control of child pornography, sexual penetration by a foreign object of a minor, oral copulation of a minor and forcible oral copulation. Brown faces nine years and four months in state prison if he is convicted, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA).
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“Between June 13, 2014, and Aug. 31, 2015, Brown is accused of meeting minor Jane Doe and offering to take photographs of the victim,” reads an OCDA statement. “During that time, the defendant is accused of taking sexually explicit photos of Jane Doe and sexually assaulting her, by sexually penetrating the victim with a foreign object and forcing the victim to orally copulate him on two separate occasions.” Brown had his arraignment hearing today continued to Oct. 16. By then he could conceivably faces additional charges because authorities fear there may be other victims. Anyone with more information is asked to contact the sheriff's Special Victims Unit at 714.647.7418 or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Mark Gutierrez at 714.347.8794.
ORIGINAL POST, SEPT. 28, NOON: Local law enforcement is putting out the word to the public that other possible victims are being sought of a professional photographer and children's tumbling teacher who is suspected of possessing child pornography and having lewd conduct with a child.
The Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force (OCCETF) believes 42-year-old Orange resident Christopher Brown travels the country to lure teenage girls through his photography business and then takes illicit images and engages in sexual misconduct with them, according to Lt. Jeff Hallock, the sheriff's department spokesman.
The OCCETF received information Wednesday from the Los Angeles Internet Crimes Against Child Task Force (LAICACTF) about Brown being in possession of numerous photographs and videos depicting female minors, which led to a preliminary investigation that included analyzing electronic data, Hallock said.
Brown was arrested at a Newport Beach shopping center, and a search warrant was served Friday at a hotel in Irvine where the photographer had been staying, Hallock said.
“[I]nvestigators collected a computer and an external hard drive believed to have belonged to Brown,” Hallock said. “In addition, investigators collected Brown's cellular phone and GoPro camera at the time of his arrest.”
He was booked into Orange County Jail for alleged possession and manufacturing of child pornography, digital penetration and oral copulation with a child and failure to register as a sex offender. Hallock explains Brown was convicted in Virginia for possession of child pornography in 2005 but that he allegedly failed to register as a sex registrant in California when he moved here several years ago.
Brown is currently being held on $500,000 bail heading into a scheduled court appearance Tuesday. Meanwhile, anyone with additional information about other victims is asked to call the Orange County Sheriff's Department's Special Victim's Unit at 714.647.7418 or 714.647.7000. Anonymous tips may also be submitted to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS”.)
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.