CLEARLAKE — The wife of the other party in a confrontation involving Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown Thursday alleged Brown attacked her husband.
“I feel violated by Mr. Brown,” Jan Sanders said. “My husband was straight-up assaulted.”
Sanders said her husband, Robert, was in bed Tuesday about 9:15 p.m. when Brown knocked on the door of their home, at 3747 Buckeye St. in Clearlake. She said she did not let Brown inside the home and woke her husband up.
She said Robert went outside in his bathrobe to talk with Brown while she watched from the living room window.
She said Brown wanted to discuss how he would takeover the property and enter to inspect the home that he “supposedly bought at auction.”
Robert asked Brown to leave the property and he did not comply, Sanders said.
She said her husband opened the gate to the property and placed his right hand on Brown”s elbow to escort him out.
“Brown turned around and suckerpunched him in the jaw and twice in the ribs,” Sanders said.
Following the incident, Robert went to the emergency room. Sanders alleged her husband has strained ligaments in his jaw and bruises on his ribs from the incident.
She called 9-1-1 and Clearlake Police officers showed up to take statements. She alleged Clearlake Police officers did not honor the Sanders” request to arrest Brown for assaulting Robert.
Brown said he was delivering a letter to the Sanders” Tuesday evening to inspect the property. He said he acquired the property at auction Aug. 6 following an April bankruptcy declaration by property owner Betty R. Welch, Sanders” mother.
Brown said $20,000 was owed because of a bail bond that was posted in the Sanders” name after they used Brown”s bail bond business to bail son Christopher Sanders out of jail approximately four years ago.
Sanders said her mother”s attorney, Susan Feeney, told them the debt against Welch was wiped out by the judge in the bankruptcy case. She said Feeney checked the status of the property”s deed Wednesday, which is allegedly still in Welch”s name.
Clearlake Police Lt. Tim Celli stated Wednesday that the case is still under investigation, though initial reports were submitted to the Lake County District Attorney”s Office for review.
Brown said he expected District Attorney Don Anderson to declare a conflict of interest and the matter would be forwarded to the State Attorney General”s Office for independent review.
Sanders said it was “very inappropriate for a county official to conduct business at 9:30 at night.”
In a phone interview Thursday, Brown said he was not conducting business that night as a county official, adding he did not ask to go inside the home and that Robert was “hit one time, that was it.”
Brown said his wife was the one who called 9-1-1.
“She was the only eyewitness to the incident,” he said, adding she was standing 5-feet away when the incident occurred.
Brown said the property was transferred into his name on Aug. 17 and he has the document on which the transfer was recorded.
