NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A man from New York was indicted on Tuesday by a federal grand jury in New Haven and charged with child exploitation offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Nicolas “Breezy” Brown, 28, arranged Uber trips on multiple occasions to pick up one to three teenage girls, two of whom were under the age of 18, from a state-run group home in Connecticut, as is alleged by court documents. The court documents further allege that he had the Uber deliver them to him at various Connecticut hotels and shopping malls, where he engaged in “explicit sexual conduct” with one of the minor victims.
Prosecutors said that on one occasion, an Uber trip that Brown arranged took the two minors to meet him at a Bridgeport train station. They say he then traveled with the minors to Manhattan, and then to a hotel in Hackensack, N.J., where they stayed for several days.
Brown was located at a hotel in Danbury and arrested on state charges on March 20, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, an iPhone seized from Brown at the time of his arrest revealed videos depicting child sex abuse, including videos that he took engaging in sexually explicit conduct with a minor victim.
The indictment charges Brown with production of child pornography, which carries a mandatory prison term of 15 years and maximum prison sentence of 30 years. He was also charged with possessing and accessing with intent to view child pornography, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
Brown has been detained in state custody since his arrest. The U.S. Attorney noted that an indictment is not evidence of guilt and that charges are only allegations; a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the West Hartford Police Department, and the Danbury Police Department, with assistance from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, are investigating the matter.
Prosecutors note that the prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is “aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.”
More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found here. To report cases of child exploitation, people can visit the webpage here.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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