- Crime: 2020s, 2024, in Idaho,
- Convicted: 2020s, 2025,
- Church positions: Unknown position,
- Crime scenes: Perpetrator's workplace,
- Criminal case(s): Alford plea, Convicted, Ongoing, Plea agreement,
- Civil lawsuit(s): No civil case,
Summary
Brandon Rex Brown was a Mormon church member in Pocatello, Idaho.
While working in a mall in Chubbuck, Idaho, Brown allegedly approached two teenage girls and offered to do a photo shoot of them in swimsuits. According to police, the girls said Brown touched them inappropriately and pulled on their bikini swim top strings and partially exposed both girls’ breasts.
Another victim, also a teenage girl, was later identified.
In March 2025, Brown entered Alford pleas to felony and misdemeanor counts of sexual battery of a child.
In June 2025, a judge rejected a plea agreement that would have required him to sentence Brown to no more than five years in prison or even potentially probation.
Floodlit continues to monitor Brown’s ongoing criminal case.
Brown was a grandson of L. Edward Brown, a former Mormon general authority and former member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy who also served a term as mayor of Pocatello, Idaho.
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- New temple presidents,
- Chubbuck man charged with child sex crimes after allegedly touching, exposing girl during fake photo shoot,
- Judge rejects plea deal for Chubbuck man accused of using fake swimsuit, jewelry businesses to lure teen girls,
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1. New temple presidents
Four new temple presidents have been called by the First Presidency, with their wives called as matrons.
Lowell Edward Brown, 71, Chappel Valley 1st Ward, Lehi Utah South Stake, called as president of the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple, succeeding President Lawrence S. Clarke. President Brown's wife, Carol Ewer Brown, will serve as temple matron. President Brown, serving as a high priests group leader and sealer, previously served in the Second Quorum of the Seventy, as president of the Korean Mission, counselor in the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple presidency, stake president, bishop, high councilor and ward Young Men president. A retired area and institute director in the Church Educational System, he was born in Preston, Idaho, to Lowell and Helen Lucille Peterson Brown.
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2. Chubbuck man charged with child sex crimes after allegedly touching, exposing girl during fake photo shoot
POCATELLO — A man police say convinced two teenage girls to take pictures wearing swimsuits, then sexually touched them while taking photos, faces multiple charges.
Brandon Rex Brown, 44, has been charged with felonies for the production of child sexually exploitative material and sexual battery of a minor, court records show. He has also been charged with a misdemeanor for sexual battery.
Chubbuck police received a call around 8:45 p.m. on Jan. 25 from a woman reporting a sex crime against a child, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The caller said two girls were approached at the Pine Ridge Mall by a man who forced them to try on swimsuits in front of him. She told police the man took pictures of the victims while they were undressed and that there was video recordings of the incident.
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3. Judge rejects plea deal for Chubbuck man accused of using fake swimsuit, jewelry businesses to lure teen girls
A Sixth District Judge rejected a plea agreement Tuesday that would have required him to sentence a Chubbuck man accused of five sex crimes for inappropriately touching and photographing three teenagers to no more than five years in prison or even potentially probation.
Brandon Rex Brown, 47, is alleged to have inappropriately touched three teenage girls after persuading them to participate in photoshoots for fake online swimsuit and jewelry businesses between June 2019 and January 2024, according to court and police records obtained by the Idaho State Journal.
Brown was arrested on charges of sexual exploitation of a child and sexual battery of a minor child, both felonies, as well as one count of misdemeanor sexual battery in January 2024 after a mother told Chubbuck police that he inappropriately touched her teenage daughter and a friend at his Pine Ridge Mall storefront under the ruse that he was selling color-changing swimsuits online Chubbuck police said. The girls were 17 and 18 at the time of the incident.
Brown is accused of taking photos of one of the girls while she was partially nude and touching both teenagers inappropriately during photoshoots at his Pine Ridge Mall storefront in January 2024 after convincing them to model swimwear, police said.
Brown told the girls that he invented color-changing swimsuits called “chameleon swimwear,” according to police records.
Soon after Brown’s arrest, Bannock County prosecutors added two more felony sex crimes — an additional count of both sexual exploitation of a child and sexual battery of a child — to the charges against him stemming from a July 2019 Chubbuck police investigation that involved a mother reporting that Brown allegedly touched her 17-year-old daughter inappropriately during a similar scenario in the mall, now mostly demolished and soon to become an outdoor shopping center.
Instead of swimwear, Brown lured the teenager to his storefront under the facade that he had a business called “Jazzuno” selling jewelry online, police said. Brown showed police a website for the jewelry business that was still under construction and a Facebook page, the police report said.
During the January 2024 investigation, the two teenagers reported that Brown untied the tops of their swimsuits, causing them to become partially nude, police said. Brown was taking photos of the girls from an overhead angle while the girls were topless and told them that if any of the photographs captured their nude bodies he would delete them immediately, according to the report.
Brown also allegedly touched one of the girls’ breasts while she was partially nude, police said.
The 18-year-old girl told officers that she captured a video of the incident with Brown and provided it to police, according to the report.
Within hours of fielding the January report, officers arrived at Brown’s Chubbuck home to see him placing items on a shelf in his garage, police said.
Brown told officers that “there was no touching” when he was made aware of the criminal charges he was accused of but was subsequently taken into custody and transported to the Bannock County Jail in Pocatello, police said.
In January, Officers seized Brown’s phone from inside the garage and later executed a search warrant at his business inside the Pine Ridge Mall, seizing a laptop that he used to show the two girls pictures of others he said were models of the swimwear, police said. Officers believed the photos could be of other victims, police said.
Brown posted a $75,000 bond after spending a weekend in jail in January 2024, the Journal reported last year.
On Tuesday, Sixth District Judge Rick Carnaroli rejected a previously agreed upon plea agreement between Brown and Bannock County prosecutors that bound, or required, him to sentence Brown to no more than five years in prison during a hearing at the Bannock County Courthouse. Depending on the results of a pre-sentencing assessment, the binding agreement would have required Carnaroli to suspend the prison term and instead place Brown on probation for five years, according to court records.
As part of the agreement, Brown on March 14 entered Alford pleas to the felony and misdemeanor counts of sexual battery of a child and both of the sexual exploitation of a child charges were dismissed, court records show.
An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain their innocence while facing the consequences of a guilty verdict. In this case, it involved Brown admitting the prosecution’s evidence would likely have resulted in a guilty verdict had the case been brought to trial.
After rejecting the plea agreement, Carnaroli set the next hearing date for July 7. Brown and his Idaho Falls attorney Allen Browning can now decide to proceed with sentencing on the three charges he entered Alford pleas to, of which he faces a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison and a fine of $100,000, or he can withdraw the pleas altogether.
In withdrawing the pleas, Brown would face all four felonies and the misdemeanor sex crime charges and could attempt to negotiate a new plea deal with Bannock County prosecutors or take his case to trial.
Adding to the potential penalties to what he had already pleaded to, the two child sexual exploitation charges each carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
Documents
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Criminal case documents
Floodlit does not have a copy of a related probable cause affidavit. Please check back soon or contact us to request that we look for one.Civil case documents
We do not know of any related civil cases, so no related civil case documents exist. If you have information that suggests otherwise, please contact us.
