By ED RUNYAN

Staff writer

YOUNGSTOWN — Police Chief Robin Lees responded this week to the Oct. 14 wrongful arrest of Youngstown State University student Ezell Brown near the university — calling it an “unfortunate situation.”

Brown did not commit the crime for which he was accused, Lees said, echoing words expressed last week by his detective and Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian.

The chief, however, said his review of the case indicates that road officers and detectives acted correctly under “some very unusual circumstances.”

He also challenged Brown’s mother’s assertion that she had to “do YPD’s job” by obtaining security video from the Courtyard apartments at YSU that proved that her son did not commit the aggravated robbery for which he was arrested.

The charge was dismissed Oct. 21 after a Youngstown police detective viewed the video and convinced prosecutors and a Youngstown Municipal Court magistrate that Brown was innocent.

Lees said Monday he has spoken to the city prosecutor’s office about drafting a letter to Brown, 18, of Youngstown, and his mother, Michelle Ezell Brown, “expressing our regret” for his false arrest for the theft of a bicycle at the Youngstown main branch of the public library.

But the chief stressed Michelle Ezell Brown did not provide the video that cleared her son, instead saying Detective Jeff Kay realized that Ezell Brown “did not fit” with the two juveniles he was arrested with and took steps to acquire surveillance video from the Courtyard apartments on his own.

Ezell Brown was playing basketball at the Courtyard Apartments on the YSU campus Oct. 14 when three teens came by and asked to play. While Brown played basketball with one of them, a second teen grabbed Brown’s backpack, and all three fled.

Brown was chasing two of them when YSU police pulled up, and he advised them he was chasing teens who had robbed him.

YSU detained Brown and the two teens while waiting for Youngstown police to arrive with the victim of the bike theft, who then identified Brown and the two teens as those who stole his bicycle. The bike-theft victim, 22, said one of the three threatened to shoot him if he didn’t give up the bike.

The juveniles were taken to the juvenile justice center, and Brown was booked in the Mahoning County jail. The next day, Michelle Ezell Brown says she took action, asking YSU for surveillance video from the Courtyard apartments. When Kay saw the video, he used it to get the charge dismissed, she said last week. A municipal court magistrate dismissed the charge Oct. 21.

Lees said Monday Kay was actually the one responsible for clearing Ezell Brown by acquiring the video himself through YSU.

“The idea that she walked in and said, ‘here’s the evidence to exonerate my child,’ that wasn’t the case at all,” Lees said. What Michelle Ezell Brown did do was tell police “that maybe it was captured on video,” Lees said.

When asked about that Tuesday, Michelle Ezell Brown acknowledged she did not physically obtain the video or take it to police, but she contacted a YSU official, who indicated video showed her son and his girlfriend in a stairwell at the time of the robbery and showed her son being robbed by three males at the basketball courts.

She maintains it was her efforts the next day to get involved that put the video in front of Youngstown police.

Lees said Kay was already working to get such video the morning after the arrest, and that Kay had questions about whether Ezell Brown was part of the bike theft.

The two teens arrested with him, ages 14 and 15, “have been charged multiple times in juvenile court” and usually commit crimes with a known third male. Brown is not that male, Lees said.

Detectives “immediately thought there’s a part to this that doesn’t fit,” Lees said.

“Detective Kay almost immediately became aware of that Ezell Brown was possibly not involved, and he contacted YSU, given the location and the fact that YSU has a lot of video surveillance of the campus and dormitory areas,” Lees said.

YSU police advised Kay that it had video Kay “needed to see.” It convinced Kay that “Ezell Brown was in fact a victim who through some very unusual circumstances turned up as part of the trio that was accused of stealing the bicycle,” Lees said.

Lees noted it’s common for suspects to allege they were not involved, so when Brown told YSU police during his arrest he was a victim, not a criminal, “it would have been taken with a grain of salt.”

Lees said his officers “acted perfectly appropriately given the circumstances” — recovering the bicycle with the suspects, the proximity of the arrests to the crime, the witness identification.

“When you put that all together, that’s pretty good probable cause to make the arrest,” Lees said, adding there is no internal affairs investigation under way regarding the conduct of the officers or detectives.

Lees said Kay’s actions resulted in a “quick arraignment and dismissal of charges” against Brown. Michelle Ezell Brown was also complimentary of Kay’s work but wished police had done more the night of the arrest to listen to the possibility her son was innocent.

Lees said there is no evidence the victim of the bike robbery acted with any malicious intent to misidentify Brown as a criminal, and police do not plan to charge him with a crime.

erunyan@tribtoday.com