New felony charge for Washington man convicted of indecent exposure

A Washington man hauled off an Amtrak train in Libby after exposing himself to two teen-age girls during an incident earlier this year is now facing a federal gun charge.

Mallory Nehemiah Brown, 43, of Auburn, Washington was initially held on $150,000 bail following the Jan. 9 incident. He was released from custody Sept. 3 following his Aug. 27 plea deal to misdemeanor indecent exposure to a minor.

A felony assault charge relating to an incident in the county jail after Brown was locked up was reduced to a misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty to that count, too.

Brown was first charged with felony indecent exposure to a minor and misdemeanor indecent exposure to a minor. The felony charge was dropped in the plea deal.

Because Brown was incarcerated since January, he had enough time to be released following the plea deal. He had to pay $235 in surcharges.

According to the charging document in the gun case, he was accused of possessing a firearm on Jan. 9 when he was taken off the train by local law enforcement officers. The document indicates Brown is a convicted felon who is not permitted to possess firearms.

Brown appeared in Missoula before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto and pleaded not guilty on Nov. 13.

If convicted of the most serious crime, Brown faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Brown was detained in the Missoula County Detention Center on a federal hold pending further proceedings. 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI, Libby Police Department, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Montana Probation and Parole conducted the investigation.

Brian C. Lowney is prosecuting the case while Federal Defenders of Montana attorney Michael Donahoe is representing Brown.

In the probable cause statement in the indecent exposure case, Libby Chief of Police Cody Ercanbrack was dispatched to the train station in Libby after Amtrak police called reporting a man was exposing himself on the train. When the train pulled in, Ercanbrack and county Sheriff’s Office Captain John Davis met with the train conductor and staff who told the officers that a man was masturbating in front of some juvenile girls.

Ercanbrack spoke with the man, identified as Brown, and asked him if he had been masturbating on the train. He allegedly said he had his hand down his pants while he slept.

Ercanbrack then spoke to the sisters, one 14 years old and the other, 16 years old. The14-year-old victim said Brown sat down in front of them and said he kept looking back at them while he allegedly masturbated. They told the officer they could see Brown’s penis as he touched himself while he looked back at them.

One of the girls got her grandma, who then sat in her seat and she also witnessed Brown masturbating, according to the court document. The grandmother found the conductor and told him what was happening. The conductor called Lincoln County Dispatch to request Brown be removed from the train and charged.

According to the probable cause statement by Ercanbrack, Brown had a conviction for indecent exposure on March 8, 2017, in Miles City, Montana.

In the jail assault case, it began on Feb. 11 when county Deputy Derek Breiland learned of an incident at the jail at about 10:35 a.m. Breiland reported that while passing out morning medications, Detention Officer Martin saw Brown grab an orange jail sock with a blunt object inside, walk into another inmate’s pod where he repeatedly struck a man. Martin told Breiland the assault appeared to be unprovoked.

The alleged victim, a 35-year-old man, told Breiland he was laying on his bed when Brown entered his cell and struck him multiple times. The man said there was no argument or conversation before the assault and he was unaware it would happen.

Breiland reported the weapon was made of two jail socks which held a bar of soap. The deputy also reported that Brown was involved in other assaults in the jail since he’d been locked up in January. He also said Brown had a lengthy criminal history from multiple states with multiple assault convictions dating back to 2014.