BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s half brother was sentenced Monday to one year and one day in prison for pretending to be a Coast Guard officer as he stopped boaters off the Connecticut coast, prosecutors said.
Bruce Brown, 47, of Wolcott, was sentenced Monday in federal court in Bridgeport. He pleaded guilty in February to impersonating a law enforcement officer and falsifying a military discharge certificate.
Authorities say Brown stopped boaters last August in Old Lyme. Prosecutors say Brown had in his car a bulletproof/tactical vest with police insignia and a Transportation Security Administration badge, handcuffs and a police tactical baton.
Scott Brown has said he was estranged from Bruce Brown, who has a different mother. The Republican lost the Massachusetts seat in 2012 and is running for Senate from New Hampshire.
Prosecutors said Bruce Brown should serve prison time, saying he had a history of similar conduct.
Brown’s attorney, Richard Cramer, asked for home detention, saying he has bipolar disorder and was partly motivated by his longtime commitment to helping local youths. He also said Brown was deemed inferior to his brother Scott and was enthralled with the trappings of posing as a Coast Guard officer.
Brown required two boat operators to produce their boating licenses. Brown also asked a jet ski operator for his license and told him to return to the dock when he couldn’t produce it.
Authorities say Brown initially told them that he was a law enforcement officer sent by the U.S. Coast Guard to photograph a Coast Guard cutter, but eventually admitted he was not an officer.
Brown was discharged in 2002 from the U.S. Coast Guard “under other than honorable conditions” but denied that on a pistol permit application, prosecutors said.
Last year, Brown offered to have a “scared straight” conversation with the sons of an acquaintance who believed Brown was a federal law enforcement officer with experience in narcotics matters, prosecutors said.
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