A guy is being jailed in the Pitkin County Jail after it was alleged that he sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman, gave her illegal narcotics, and kept her captive in a vehicle for ten days at the Buttermilk Ski Area parking lot.
Michael Anthony Brown, 32, was taken into custody in his van in the Buttermilk lot at around 11:40 p.m. on September 13 after a months-long investigation into the crime, which is said to have occurred between December 15 and 25, according to an arrest record written by the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office. Although Brown has been residing in the Aspen region recently, his last known address is in Paonia.
According to court documents, Brown was taken into custody by the authorities just after midnight. Brown’s bond was set by a court last Sunday at $50,000 cash only.
At his initial court appearance, Brown was represented by a public attorney and informed that he was charged with four felonies: menacing, sexual assault, unauthorized sexual contact, and false imprisonment. In addition, he is charged with three misdemeanors: theft, third-degree assault, and obstruction of telegraph or phone service. Records indicate that Brown is scheduled to appear in court on October 8 for additional proceedings.
8-year-old Hid iPad to Expose Alleged Child Abuse at Day Care in Florida: Sheriff’s Office Reveals
Brad Gibson, a sheriff’s detective, led the investigation that resulted in the warrant that was signed by a court on September 12 and led to the arrest.
As per Gibson’s prepared statement of facts for the case, Brown got to know the woman in the summer of 2023 through her boyfriend. The woman broke up with her boyfriend shortly after, according to Gibson’s statement, which was based on interviews he and other law enforcement agents conducted with the woman, her mother, Brown, and other witnesses as well as information obtained from cellphone devices. She also began buying cocaine from Brown and hanging out around his van.
By December, the two were smoking crack together at the victim’s residence, and “Brown eventually pressured her into having sex with him in return for the drugs,” Gibson’s statement says, based on an interview with the woman. Her mother, seeing what was happening at their home, decided to relocate with her daughter elsewhere in the Roaring Fork Valley.
The daughter’s stay at the new house was brief. She sneaked out of her house in the middle of the night to meet Brown after suffering withdrawal symptoms for three days, and the two of them rode a public bus to Aspen to get high. Brown would not allow the woman to go back home the following morning, even though she told the investigator that was her plan. The two had been friendly, but according to Gibson, Brown removed her phone’s SIM card after they got off the bus in Aspen in order to turn off its location capabilities and stop her telephone from “pinging” to find out where it was.
The statement continues: “Once inside Brown’s van, (name omitted) said Brown took her phone, removed the SIM card and hid the card. She told Brown she was going to leave on the RFTA bus later. She said Brown replied, ‘You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying here now. Like, you’re not going back to your house.’ (Name omitted) said that was when it hit her that she did not know what was going to happen next … ‘cause I thought I was just coming here to get high, and then I was gonna go home.’” This information was provided by the alleged victim to Deputy Cameron Daniel during a March 14 interview.
After friends and family made futile attempts to contact the woman over those ten days, officials concluded that, due to her advanced age, the victim was an adult and could not be classified as a runaway. The mother had communicated with a public agency co-responder technician and the Aspen Police Department during that time, and on December 22, she brought her concerns to the attention of the sheriff’s office, according to the statement.
Houston Rapper Sentenced for Human Trafficking of Minors: US Attorney Reveal
A deputy was dispatched to the van at the Buttermilk lot after the mother became suspicious that her daughter was residing there, but the visit was unsuccessful, according to the statement.
The lady told authorities during her interview on March 14 that after getting on Brown’s bus, her timeline became hazy, but that she primarily used that time to hunt for the SIM card while Brown was out on business. According to Gibson’s statement, Brown would get upset and threaten her when he realized she had been searching through the van for the SIM card.
The complaint goes on to say that in addition to giving her crack cocaine, Brown also fed her medications and threatened to traffick her in sex. She claimed that Brown also gave her a beating.