The man selected as a new member of the Franklin City Council was arrested about 18 months ago and charged with domestic battery after an incident at his home.
Stephen R. Brown was picked by six members of the Republican Party in Franklin to fill the city council vacancy Thursday night.
He was initially arrested on charges of criminal confinement and domestic battery, but was only charged with domestic battery, a misdemeanor, and is nearing the completion of a pretrial diversion program that will prevent a conviction from appearing on his record.
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A Franklin police report documented the September 2016 incident that led to his arrest. The report included details that he confined his girlfriend in the bathroom of his home for up to an hour, pushing her and refusing to allow her to leave and threatening to keep her in the small room for days, in a jealous episode over a text message and a hug she had received.
She fought him to try to escape and he eventually let her out and she called police, the Franklin Police Department report said. He told police the night of his arrest that he had pushed her several times, the report said.
On Friday, he said the incident did not include any pushing, shoving or hitting.
Brown, who has completed community service hours and expects to have the misdemeanor domestic battery charge dismissed later this month, said he didn’t realize at the time that he was committing criminal confinement because his girlfriend lives in his home, and characterized the incident as an argument that got out of hand.
He doesn’t want the incident, which he doesn’t deny, to overshadow his community involvement and the work he wants to accomplish for the city, he said.
He was selected as a city council member over three other eligible candidates — a local attorney, a deputy prosecutor and a retired sheriff’s deputy.
Brown is the second city council member with a recent arrest. In March, council member Drew Eggers was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, to which he later pleaded guilty. He resigned as a deputy prosecutor and remained on the city council.
Brown replaces council member Joe Ault, who resigned in January after public outcry over a post he shared on Facebook that made derogatory remarks about certain countries, Democrats and votes.
The Republican Party is responsible for conducting a caucus to fill vacancies on the city council until the next election. Brown was selected by the six Republican Party precinct committee members for District 1 on the city council.
Brown said on Friday that most of the precinct committee members who voted are personal friends who were aware of his arrest, noting that it was a public record.
At least two precinct committee members said they were not aware of Brown’s arrest when they voted. Two others declined to comment. Two precinct committee members did not return phone calls.
County Republican Party chairperson Beth Boyce said she was not aware of Brown’s arrest, but her job is to confirm that candidates meet the legal requirements to serve, such as living in the city and the district for long enough and checking their Republican voting record.
It’s up to the voters, in this case the precinct committee members, to engage with the candidates and learn about them, she said. She organized the caucus but did not cast a vote.
If she had known about his arrest, it might have been addressed before the caucus, Boyce said. Brown was sworn in and began his duties immediately following several rounds of voting that resulted in his selection.
Precinct committee members declined to say what their next steps would be, but one said he did want to find out how they did not know about Brown’s arrest.
Dan Richards, a precinct committee member, said he voted for Brown, but was not aware of his past arrest. If he had known, it would have given him reason for concern, Richards said. Richards said he has known Brown since he was a teenager and known his parents, but had not been close with him in the last decade.
When he is selecting a new candidate, Richards said he typically vets his selection by talking with the applicants one-on-one — if he doesn’t already know them — to get information about their background, including where they work, and to learn about their character and goals for the future to determine if they are the best fit for the city.
He wants to find out how precinct committee members missed Brown’s arrest, and also have a discussion with Brown about the past arrest and what has happened since, he said.
Precinct committee member John White said he also was not aware of Brown’s past arrest. He declined to say who he voted for in the caucus.
White said he does not do a vetting of the candidates because he does not have the time. He does review their application letter, talk to people who know them and listen to their speech at the caucus to make his decision, he said.
White declined to comment on what steps he may take next after learning of Brown’s arrest.
Precinct committee members Eric Fredbeck and James Martin declined to comment. Members Pam Ault and Kirby Cochran did not return phone calls on Friday.
Joe Ault had represented District 1 and his term ends at the end of 2019. The other eligible candidates were local attorney Michael Auger, retired Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputy Danny Blankenship and deputy prosecutor Lori Prince.
On Sept. 24, 2016 police received an incomplete 911 call from Brown’s Center Street home just after 2 a.m. The couple had been at a Franklin bar and after they got home, Brown became upset because she received a text message from a former co-worker after he hugged her that evening, and Brown demanded her phone passcode so he could read her messages. She refused, and he took the phone from her and told her repeatedly that he wasn’t going to let her leave the bathroom, the police report said.
She told police that he pushed her several times, causing her to fall, and that she hit him and tried to knee him in an effort to escape, the police report said. He told her that he would keep her in the bathroom for days if need be, the report said.
He eventually let her go and went outside, but wouldn’t return her cell phone, so she used the home phone to call 911.
Brown told police that she received text messages from a man they had seen while they were at a downtown bar, and once they got home, he confronted her and trapped her in the bathroom for up to an hour and told her she wasn’t leaving until he saw the messages, the report said. He also told police that he pushed her several times to keep her from leaving, the report said.
He told police that he had made poor decisions and poor choices and let jealousy get the best of him, and that he couldn’t help his actions, the report said.
Brown asked police if his girlfriend was going to be arrested for battering him, but a police lieutenant told him no because her actions were in an effort to escape, the report said.
Brown was arrested on a charge of criminal confinement and domestic battery and was later charged with a misdemeanor count of domestic battery. He entered the pretrial diversion program in February 2017, which would allow him to not have a criminal conviction if he completes the requirements of the program. He is set for a compliance hearing later this month.
He has completed 56 hours of community service, he said.
Brown said the argument got out of hand, and that he made a mistake and accepted the requirements of the pretrial diversion program, rather than the expense of a trial.
“I made a mistake, I learned from it, and I’m better because of it,” he said this week.
He said no elected officials or private sector employees are expected to be perfect, but his only obligation is to get something positive from the incident and move on.
Brown said this week that at the time of his arrest, he did not understand the concept of criminal confinement, but does understand it now.
“I mean she lives there,” he said. “She wasn’t going to go anywhere anyways.”
Brown has lived in Franklin his entire life and worked as an agent at Franklin Insurance for 15 years. He’s a member of the Franklin Rotary Club, plays taps at veterans’ funerals as part of the Sons of the American Legion Post 205, plays in the Franklin Community Band and is active in his church, Tabernacle Christian. He’s also a member of the Franklin Elks Club and the Johnson County Shrine Club.
He said his service work and desire to give back to the community was instilled by his mother.
In his speech at the caucus, he explained his approach to public service and interest in becoming an elected official.
“If you live here and this is your home, service, whether it is being elected, serving or volunteering, to me it is more of an obligation to put back into the community, rather than an opportunity,” he said on Friday.
He was inspired to seek the office after hearing from city council president Ken Austin about the legacy the council is leaving and the projects that remain, such as the Interstate 65 corridor and the South Main Street greenways project. He’s up for working through challenges to realize the successes, he said.
“I see that potential for Franklin moving forward,” he said.
His first goals are to learn from the council, be educated and readily available as a representative of the downtown district. He wants residents to reach out to discuss issues and offer their opinions, he said. He will make decisions based on public consensus, not personal opinion, he said.
Brown, who will earn a council member’s salary of $7,374 this year, will represent District 1 which includes a portion of downtown Franklin, approximately bordered by Graham and Younce streets on the east, U.S. 31 on the west, Washington Street and Parkview Court on the north and Youngs Creek on the south. A portion of the district also runs east, south of King Street, to just beyond Forsythe Street.
Members of the seven-person board are tasked with setting the city’s budget and approving new city rules, such as any changes to the smoking ban, or if the city wanted to consider charging a new tax or higher fees for services, or add equipment or people to the police, fire, parks or street departments.
This was the third caucus to replace a Franklin official in about a year. Last year, then-mayor Joe McGuinness resigned in the middle of his term to become commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation, and city council member Steve Barnett was selected as the new mayor. Bob Heuchan was selected to replace Barnett on the city council in a second caucus.
