A Columbia County man convicted of repeatedly molesting four little girls has been returned from prison for retrial after the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned his convictions.
Rodney Earl Brown, 66, was found guilty in 2022 of aggravated child molestation, incest, multiple counts of child molestation, and electronically furnishing obscene material to a minor. But the appeals court ruled this summer that the trial court made a critical error in replacing a juror during deliberations, a decision that led to Brown being convicted.
The jury deliberated for several hours before becoming deadlocked on several charges. According to court records, the jury reached an agreement on one count, but was split 11-1 on the remaining charges. The lone holdout juror, a forensic analyst, was accused by other jurors of letting his professional background interfere with his judgment. They claimed he was repeatedly referencing his expertise in forensic analysis during deliberations, making it difficult for the jury to reach a consensus.
Despite the juror’s assertions that he could fairly evaluate the case based on the evidence, the trial judge decided to remove him from the panel. The court cited concerns about the analyst’s social media posts before and after jury selection, in which he made comments about the trial, including references to “jury nullification” and concerns about causing a mistrial. These posts, however, were deemed to be unrelated to the trial itself and did not provide sufficient grounds for his removal, according to the appellate court.
The appeals court ruled that the trial court had violated Brown’s right to a fair trial by replacing the holdout juror with an alternate. The court stated that jurors are permitted to bring their personal knowledge and experience into deliberations, as long as they do not allow it to overshadow the case’s evidence. Since there was no evidence that the juror refused to consider the evidence impartially or disrupted deliberations, the court determined the removal was unjustified.
As a result, Brown’s conviction has been reversed, and he will face a new trial. The Court of Appeals remanded the case for retrial on all charges, ruling that the removal of the lone dissenting juror had the potential to influence the outcome of the verdict.
Brown was originally arrested in March 2018 on charges of abusing young children over a two-year period. He was accused of sexually abusing the children beginning when they were between 4 to 7 years old, prosecutors said.
Brown pleaded not guilty and told a jury that the allegations against him were false, but prosecutors built a solid case.
“The crimes against these children were horrific,” District Attorney Bobby Christine said in 2022.
Brown is being held without bond in the Columbia County Detention Center. A new trial date has not been set.
