Ron Brown, former University Relations employee, reportedly committed suicide by putting a plastic bag over his head in the West Baton Rouge Parish Prison early Wednesday morning – one day before he was to be sentenced on child pornography charges.
Brown, 60, pleaded guilty in 2004 to charges of sexual exploitation, enticing for illegal sexual activity and receiving and possessing child pornography.
He faced between 10 and 60 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines.
Officials said they are still investigating the circumstances surrounding Brown’s death.
“We are taking the time to fully investigate the matter, as we do in any death or crime scene in the prison,” said Bryan Bellelo, prison warden. “Everything appears to be as it looks, but we want to make sure.”
Brown admitted before U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola in 2004 that he had invited a girl he met in an online chat room to travel from Illinois to Baton Rouge for sex. Brown testified that he believed the girl was 16 at the time, but he had never asked her age.
Brown, who was working as a science writer for University Relations when he was charged, later bragged about his relationship with the girl in a chat room devoted to the virtues of being a pedophile.
The Daily Reveille reported in 2003 that former University Relations Executive Director Gene Sands asked LSU Computing Services to take a look at Brown’s computer where they discovered evidence of child pornography.
“It was just a routine check,” Sands said in 2003. “I was very surprised; he was a good worker and a good writer.”
After police seized two computers and other electronic media from his home in Denham Springs on June 24, 2003, Brown fled to Natchez, Miss.
Brown stayed in Natchez until Aug. 4, 2003, when he turned himself in to LSUPD.
“It was just a tragic situation all the way around,” University Director of Public Affairs Kristine Calongne said Thursday.
Brown’s death occurred at a time when another former University employee awaits sentencing for child pornography charges.
Former Dean of Students for Judicial Affairs Jim Welles pleaded guilty to one count of transporting and two counts of possessing child pornography on Aug. 3.
The date for his sentencing has not been scheduled yet.
Contact Jeff Jeffrey at [email protected]