Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree charged a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer with domestic violence-related charges, less than a week after the same officer was charged in Jackson County in a separate domestic assault case involving the same victim.
Deotis Brown, 33, was arrested Thursday and faces a total of five felony charges — one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated intimidation of a witness or victim in Wyandotte County and three domestic assault charges in Jackson County.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department suspended Brown without pay following charges by Jackson County prosecutors after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend on Sept. 2. Brown has been with the department since 2017.
Karl Oakman, police chief in Kansas City, Kansas, said Brown’s alleged victim disclosed a previous assault that took place in Wyandotte County in February.
“We were made aware of the incident in Jackson County, Missouri,” Oakman said at a Thursday afternoon press conference. “At that time, the victim relayed additional information on the February incident, which at that time occurred in KCK. At that time we immediately opened a criminal investigation in KCK.”
Neither Dupree nor Oakman described details of the alleged assault in Kansas City, Kansas.
"We are just happy that there is someone who finally got to a place in her life where she could stand up and speak up," Dupree said. "We're going to use that and the facts of that to hopefully move swiftly through this case and encourage those who are in the middle of that cycle to break it and to speak up."
A probable cause statement filed in Jackson County Circuit Court said on Sept. 3, Kansas City, Missouri, police met with a woman who said she has been in an intimate relationship with Brown for three years. She told police that he threw her down on a couch, strangled her with both hands and punched her in the face several times while they were at a wedding reception the night before in Kansas City, Missouri.
The victim provided police with a recording of a phone conversation after the incident in which the victim described the assault to Brown. In the recording, Brown acknowledged it and said he was out of line, according to the probable cause statement.
Brown told police that the victim struck him twice and he had a “natural reaction” and hit her back and denied putting his hands on her neck. The victim told police that Brown came to her house several times since the incident in Kansas City, Missouri, and pointed a gun at her on a previous occasion, according to the statement.
Dupree said domestic violence would not be tolerated.
“Domestic violence thrives when it is not taken seriously and not exposed openly,” Dupree said. "These violent acts cause folks to be apprehensive, to be afraid and not to come forward. And I want you to know that you can come forward, you don't have to accept it, and I would encourage you to get help before it's too late."
Oakman said 34% of homicides in Kansas City, Kansas, this year were related to domestic violence.
“This is a serious issue,” Oakman said. “This department takes it seriously.”
If you or someone you know might be a victim of domestic violence, consider reaching out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline either by phone at 800-799-SAFE (7233)/TTY 800-787-3224, chatting live online at thehotline.org or texting "START" to 88788.
