Man jailed in St. Lucie County after being accused of repeatedly molesting two sisters for years
- By Elliott Jones
- TCPalm
- Posted December 21, 2012 at 11:27 p.m.
FORT PIERCE — A 69-year-old man who is accused of repeatedly sexually molesting two sisters during their preteen years said it started because he was lonely.
Years later, in September, he called their mother in Fort Pierce, asking her forgiveness — after the oldest girl, now 23, told him she would call police because he was trying to approach her again, according to an arrest affidavit.
The mother confronted the daughter who, according to the affidavit, said Donald Brown, now of Auburndale, Fla., had molested the sisters starting when the oldest was 6 years old in a dwelling in Georgia. That was as her sister, then 2, was asleep in the same room, the report states.
The mother turned to the police and the sisters recently told investigators he molested both of them more than 300 times until the oldest girl was about age 11.
As the investigation concluded this fall, the mother called Brown while police listened in. Investigators quoted him as saying he knew he was wrong. "I guess I was sick."
Sheriff's investigators jailed Brown on Dec. 14 in St. Lucie County on five counts of lewd and lascivious assault on children under 12 years old. He is being held without bail.
The sisters told investigators Brown said he loved them and he would buy them gifts, but they should keep it all secret, the reports state.
The secret began to unfold after the girls' family moved to St. Lucie County from Georgia. Brown followed, according to the law enforcement investigation.
By then oldest girl said she learned in school that what had happened to her and her sister was bad.
So she threatened to call police when Brown, according to the arrest affidavit, approached her in St. Lucie County this year and asked for her phone number.
Soon after that she saw Brown and her younger sister in a bed in St. Lucie County.
A couple months later, Brown called the mother, saying he needed forgiveness so he again could become a Jehovah's Witness