A 70-year-old registered sex offender in Jennings County is facing Class B felony rape and child molesting charges after investigators say he sexually abused a victim over several years, beginning when the victim was under 14. Ronald Brown was booked into the Jennings County Jail on Wednesday and is being held without bond.
Investigation Stretched From June Report to August Arrest
According to the Jennings County Sheriff's Office, the case began on June 18 when deputies received the initial report alleging sexual abuse by Brown. Detectives interviewed him five days later, on June 23. The charges were referred to the county prosecutor. Brown was booked on August 12 on the rape and child molesting counts, per the sheriff's office.
Brown is being held without bond under Indiana Code ยง 35-33-8-3.5(c)(3), a provision that permits holding people charged with violent felony sex offenses without bond pending trial, the sheriff's office says. At the time of his arrest, he was actively under community corrections supervision stemming from a prior felony conviction involving a sex offense against a child, according to the same account.
What a Conviction Could Mean
The cited Justia Law source does not specify the applicable sentencing framework or potential penalties. Brown's charges remain allegations at this stage, and no trial date has been reported.
The arrest comes amid a stretch of heightened scrutiny for law enforcement in Jennings County. In June, a grand jury indicted the county sheriff following a GPS-tracked sting operation involving stolen campaign signs, as Hoodline reported. That case is described separately from the allegations against Brown but has kept local criminal justice matters in the spotlight this year.
Brown's arrest also follows other recent child sex crime cases across the region, including a Jeffersonville man whose case involved more than 1,000 child-sex images uploaded to cloud storage, and an Anderson man charged in late July in an alleged years-long child molesting case, both previously covered by Hoodline. As reported by WDRB, the Brown case was among the local reports the station covered this week.
