Ex-Brownfield economic development head ordered to jail while awaiting sentencing

lubbockonline.com

A Lubbock federal magistrate judge ruled this week that the former Brownfield economic development chief failed to show exceptional circumstances that would allow him to remain out on bond while awaiting sentencing for possessing materials depicting child sexual abuse.

Judge D. Gordon Bryant ordered Brian Lynn Brisendine, the former Brownfield Industrial Development Corporation director, to report to U.S. Marshals by 1 p.m. May 9. He will be remanded into custody while waiting on his sentencing hearing tentatively set for July 28.

Brisendine, who appeared in court Monday for a detention hearing, pleaded guilty March 30 to a count of receipt and distribution of child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

More:Brisendine released on bond while facing federal child pornography charge

Brownfield economic development chief arrested on child porn charges

Brisendine, was the editor of the Brownfield News before getting the job as director of the Brownfield Industrial Development Corporation in 2019. The corporation oversees the Brownfield Economic Development Department, according to the city's website.

Brisendine resigned from the Brownfield Economic Development Department soon after his arrest.

Brisendine's charge stems from a Texas Department of Public Safety investigation that began in October after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent a tip that files containing materials of child sexual abuse were held in an online storage account. The account was linked to an I.P. Address that was traced to Brisendine's home in Brownfield.

The storage account was also associated with an email address Brisendine used in a drivers license application, according to a criminal complaint that was unsealed after his initial appearance on Monday.

On Jan. 18, agents searched Brisendine's home. He also met with agents and admitted to trading images of child sexual abuse online since 2014. He admitted to viewing between 5,000 and 10,000 videos and images of child sexual abuse with children as young as four months old. He told investigators that he knowingly possessed all the images and videos in the storage account, which he also saved on his computer.

He told agents he has sexual fantasies involving children and masturbated to the images of child sexual abuse he collected.

He was initially arrested in January and was released on bond.

More:Brownfield economic development chief arrested on child porn charges

He was allowed to remain out on bond after his guilty plea until U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix accepted his guilty plea.

Once Brisendine's conviction was entered, his detention was mandatory because his charge is considered a crime of violence even though he is not accused of physically harming anyone. He would have to be held in jail unless he could prove exceptional circumstances that he should be released until he is sentenced.

However, exceptional circumstances are determined on a case-by-case basis at the court's discretion.

On Monday, Brisendine's attorney David Guinn argued that exceptional circumstance in his client's case rested on his client's continued court-ordered sex-offender treatment, which he started in February.

In a motion he filed before the hearing, Guinn argued that his client's continued sex-offender counseling was also a benefit to the community.

"The treatment cannot continue if Mr. Brisendine is incarcerated awaiting sentencing," the motion reads.

The motion also states that Brisendine faithfully complied with the conditions of his release on bond and there was no evidence he was a flight risk or a danger to the community.

Federal prosecutors argued against Brisendine's continued release saying his continued treatment doesn't rise to an exceptional circumstance and would create a blanket argument for defendants facing similar cases.

Guinn cited a case in the Dallas division of the Northern District of Texas in which a judge found a defendant's continued treatment was an exceptional circumstance and granted his continued release.

However, Guinn told the court he was unable to explain how the exceptional circumstance in that case was established since the judge's order and the motion were sealed.

Bryant told Guinn that in that case it appeared federal prosecutors did not oppose the defendant's continued release, unlike in Brisendine's case.

In fact, Bryant said he found three other cases similar to Brisendine's case over which the Dallas federal judge presided and denied motions for continued release.