DRAPER, Utah (ABC4 Utah) – Keith Brown has kept quiet about his role in sexually abusing his daughters.
Brown was once the manager for his children who performed as a classical piano ensemble called the “5 Browns.”
Thursday, he opened up at his parole hearing.
“I am so embarrassed for the pain I’ve caused them,” Brown said. “I just wished I had been smarter.”
It was the first time in a decade that Brown offered a somewhat apology for sexually abusing his own daughters.
His daughters were part of the “5 Browns” ensemble.
Their long and difficult journey may have gone quietly unnoticed had it not been for Valentine’s day outing between Keith Brown and his wife.
It started in 2011 with a car crash in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Unified batallion chief Mike Ulibarri addressed the media on the scene.
“They said they were in the water and the vehicle was filling with water and they didn”t know the location they were,” said Ulibarri. “They were coming back from dinner from the snowbird lodge”
At the time, authorities didn’t know who was trapped in their vehicle. It wasn’t until later that they learned Keith Brown had been driving along with his wife, Lisa, the passenger.
But days later, emails from anonymous sources to the media claimed Keith Brown was facing several child sex abuse charges in Utah county. The crimes went back as far as 1990.
Seven days after he was charged, Brown was confronted by members of the media but refused to comment.
Inside the courtroom, he pleaded guilty to sodomy and two counts of child sex abuse.
In another surprise move, Brown waived pre-sentence reports normally used by a judge to determine a sentence. Instead, he was sentenced right away.
The judge called him a “pedophile” and a “danger to society.” He was sentenced to a minimum of ten years and up-to-life in prison.
His daughters continued their careers and held their heads high.
Deondra Brown said, “As a teenager, I fell victim to this abuse,” Deondra Brown told ABC4 in 2015. “I felt alone, really alone. I felt shamed and dirty.”
Thursday, after ten years in prison, Brown was no longer their manager but inmate number 201465 and hoped for a chance at parole.
His daughters also attended waiting to hear some remorse.
“Even though I feel that I’ve overcome the problems from 25-to-35-years ago, how could it not be offensive,” Brown said.
Friday, Brown’s justification will continue and his two daughters who were present at the hearing got a chance to respond.
