Former Independence Community College head football coach Jason Brown “is facing eight felony counts for allegedly stealing the identity of a lawyer in an attempt to silence local newspapers,” according to the Parsons Sun.
Brown and Independence CC (KS) were the focus of Season 3 of Netflix’s documentary series, Last Chance U.
The Parsons Sun adds that Brown is charged with “four counts of blackmail, four counts of identity theft, all felonies, as well as two counts of criminal false communication, both misdemeanors.”
Jason Brown, the former Independence Community College football coach, is facing eight felony counts for allegedly stealing the identity of a lawyer in an attempt to silence local newspapers.
Brown, who gained notoriety for being featured on the Netflix documentary series “Last Chance U,” is charged with four counts of blackmail, four counts of identity theft, all felonies, as well as two counts of criminal false communication, both misdemeanors. The Montgomery County Attorney’s Office filed charges Friday.
Brown resigned from Independence CC in February after a text conversation between him and a German-born player was made public. A text from Brown in the exchange read, “I am your new Hitler.”
Brown also allegedly pretended be an attorney from the Cochran Law Firm (as in Johnnie Cochran), and sent a cease-and-desist email to the Montgomery County Chronicle following an October 2018 article about a fight between Independence CC and Garden City CC.
The Montgomery County Chronicle and Independence Daily Reporter received more such messages from the the “Cochran Law Firm” following articles about the text exchange between Brown and the German football player.
An investigation from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department reportedly revealed that the emails from the “Cochran Law Firm” were traced to IP addresses belonging to Brown.
The charges against Brown, according to the Chronicle, allege that he initiated email communication with the newspapers by impersonating the attorney through a Yahoo! email address that had a similar domain name to the law firm’s. The emails in question were traced to IP addresses on devices belonging to Brown, the Chronicle reported.
Oh, and Season 4 of Last Chance U will again cover Brown and Independence CC. Season 4 hits Netflix on July 19, and it will be interesting to see how much of this mess the documentary series covers.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.