Clatsop D.A. Forced to Drop False Charges

Ron Brown’s Attempt to Railroad Simonson has Failed

By Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter

DA Ron Brown

Clatsop County, OR – Pursued for 14-months as a criminal, Justin Simonson received word on July 22, 2021, that Clatsop County District Attorney (DA) Ron Brown officially dropped the false charges against him. Simonson now enters the ranks of other US~Observer clients who are victorious against a system that pursues charges against those who never committed the crimes. Now, Simonson must weigh whether or not he will seek to go after the county for all the damage they caused while Brown, his department, and the extremely negligent law enforcement agencies all engaged in their willful miscarriage of justice against him.

Justin Simonson and the dog his dying wife gave him before her death. Clatsop Law Enforcement stole the animal and gave it away while Simonson was falsely incarcerated.

The US~Observer had provided Ron Brown with conclusive evidence of Simonson’s innocence in December of 2020, yet this corrupt DA chose to keep pursuing the patently false charges against Simonson for over a year. Brown’s recent all-out effort to extort a plea-bargain from Simonson was most assuredly done as an attempt to protect law enforcement from civil liability for falsely arresting him in the first place and was a last-ditch effort to salvage a failed conviction effort.

On May 23, 2020, career criminal Corey Jones had called police and reported that Justin Simonson was shooting at the trailer she was living in. It was a trailer that had been previously moved onto Simonson’s property without permission. Nor was permission given for Jones and her boyfriend Andrew Bue to live on the property – creating a dispute between Simonson, Bue and Jones. On top of attempting to get Clatsop County law enforcement to get Andrew Bue, Corey Jones and their trailer off his property for trespassing, Simonson had been calling Deputy Chance Moore for weeks telling him that the alleged heroin dealers (Bue and Jones) sometimes had Bue’s 6-year-old boy on the property, and that he was concerned about the child’s safety. Yet, Deputy Moore did nothing, and as a result it allowed Jones time to concoct her made-up shooting narrative, which according to some, was just a scheme of Bue and Jones’ to steal Simonson’s property.

Corey Jones

After Jones called the authorities, Clatsop County Sheriff’s Deputies and other police officers arrived at Simonson’s Trust property. They reportedly found Jones, who was watching Andrw Bue’s young child at the time, on a “drug crazed high”. Even still, they took her at her word and went after Simonson – or did they simply have an ulterior motive?

Simonson’s arresting officer was Deputy Tom Phillips, who is described as “badge heavy” by others in law enforcement. He was certainly badge heavy the night he arrested Simonson and helped create a false story about him. Simonson kept asking why they were on his property, what was he being arrested for, and if they had a warrant….

According to one witness, Deputy Phillips was caught on bodycam footage that night calling Simonson a constitutionalist, a possible hit man, a drug dealer and an addict. Phillips stated that Simonson was probably f***ing Corey Jones, the heroin addict who made the false 911 call. While Phillips led the narrative, the gang of cops followed.

Astoria Police also assisted in the “take down” of Simonson. With Officer Nicki Riley charging across Simonson’s property pointing a gun directly at him while yelling expletives, Simonson justifiably thought he was going to be killed that night by law enforcement.

Clatsop County Sheriff’s Sergeant Eric Dotson subsequently cuffed Justin and took him to jail.

Justin Simonson’s case began with a violent arrest for multiple felony counts. He arrived at the jail bleeding from overly tight handcuffs and was placed in solitary confinement for 6 days. His treatment while there was inhumane – he lost 25 lbs. The sheriff deputies took Simonson’s purebred German Shepherd and gave it up for adoption while he was in solitary. The dog was a gift from his wife who had recently died of cancer.

Following Simonson’s arrest, he was banned from his property from May 2020 to Dec 2020 (7 months). During this time his property was ransacked, and he was robbed of over $15,000.00 of tools and equipment. When he complained to law enforcement he was told, “without video they couldn’t help him.”

Andrew Bue

Simonson was also warned that his complaints could be viewed as harassment of the alleged victim. According to witnesses, during this time the cops allowed Andrew Bue and Corey Jones to remain on Simonson’s property where they were allegedly selling drugs, thus abusing Bue’s child. Eventually things got so out of control that the six-year-old boy’s biological mom would not allow him to visit his father. Jones became pregnant and allegedly continued to shoot up every day. When the child was born the state reportedly took the baby into custody. According to information gathered, Corey Jones had already had at least one other child taken from her by the state.

According to one expert on police procedures and practices, the police would have looked up both Corey Jones and Justin Simonson on their computer to see who they were dealing with prior to arresting Simonson. The officers obviously knew that Jones’ rap sheet included possession and delivery of heroin, possession of methamphetamine, robbery, burglary, trespassing, etc., etc. They would or should have known that Simonson didn’t have any criminal history. Instead of blindly going after Justin Simonson, these officers should have searched Jones’ trailer for drugs and arrested her for filing a false police report.

Sources in the community and from law enforcement have shared that former Sheriff Tom Bergin was absent for the last three years of his position as Sheriff. He was away 3 weeks out of every month for 3 years and received a 30K raise during that time. Sources say the root cause of the haphazard police work in the Simonson case was the absence of leadership in the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Department. I believe the problem goes much deeper than the absence of a Sheriff – the acts of these officers clearly shows a complete lack of ethics as well as morality, character, empathy, etc.

The actions and lack of actions on the part of Officers Chance Moore, Nathan Baldwin and others begs the question:

Apart from being bad individuals, were the officers simply incompetent or were they protecting Corey Jones because she reportedly works for the police as a confidential informant (CI).

In an attempt to find out, Simonson’s former attorney James Leuenberger (now deceased) filed a Motion with the court to force Clatsop County District Attorney Ron Brown to turn over evidence that Jones was a CI. Brown’s office strenuously fought the Motion. However, Judge Beau Peterson sided with Leuenberger and gave the DA’s office 2 weeks (until April 12, 2021) to turn over the evidence. Brown blatantly ignored Peterson’s order – Simonson never received anything from DA Brown.

DA Brown’s Repeated Attempts to Extort

Beginning in June of 2021, DA Brown started making repeated attempts to extort a plea from Simonson. Keep in mind, corrupted DA Brown made these offers knowing full well that he did not have one shred of evidence to prove that Justin Simonson committed a crime. This is not pursing justice as Brown is sworn to do, it is the work of a dangerous individual, capable of charging anyone he chooses at any time.

And get this, on July 27, 2021, Justin Simonson went to the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office to pick up his confiscated gun collection but was informed that they were going to keep them until DA Brown gave his okay to release. It obviously makes no difference to Clatsop County officials what judges say anymore. Remember, Judge Beau Peterson ordered DA Brown to turn over evidence to Simonson’s defense and he ignored the order – Simonson’s charges were dismissed in open court on July 22, 2021, and the Sheriff’s Office ignores the dismissal by illegally retaining Simonson’s gun collection. The statutes call this act “Conversion”, however, there is clearly no one to enforce the law in Clatsop County, Oregon!

Editor’s Note: In a related Clatsop County false prosecution case being conducted by DA Ron Brown we find that two Sheriff’s Deputies involved in the Simonson case were also involved in Dave Samuelson’s false prosecution.

Deputy Sheriff Chance Moore was the supervising officer when Dave Samuelson was falsely arrested. We have received accusations that Moore assisted Shannon Wood (alleged victim) in writing a stalking/restraining order, that was rejected on its face the next day by Judge Paula Brownhill.

Also, Sheriff’s Sergeant Eric Dotson allegedly had Samuelson’s citation made out prior to meeting with him. He and Chance Moore spoke with Samuelson for a very short time and handed him his citation for not only an obviously manufactured sexual harassment charge, but a ridiculous one as well.

Ron Brown with his wife at Clatsop Co. Courthouse. – Photo by George Vetter

Closely comparing the Justin Simonson case with the Dave Samuelson case, any prudent person will conclude that in Clatsop County, Oregon, it is just fine to trespass, “dope it up”, and then falsely accuse an innocent person like Corey Jones did to Simonson. But, if you are a stellar example of a human being, over 60 years of age, without any criminal record like Dave Samuelson you had better watch out – you might just have your life ruined at any time without any reason whatsoever.

Anyone with information on Ron Brown or any of the corrupt police officers or individuals mentioned in this article are urged to contact the US~Observer at 541-474-7885 or by email to editor@usobserver.com. Further, the US~Observer has received a very serious complaint against DA Ron Brown’s wife Tiffany Brown. We are currently investigating this allegation.

Traveling to help people who are innocent of the crimes they are facing prosecution for is extremely expensive.

The US~Observer is asking supporters to assist us in finding good quality motorhomes, travel trailers or 5^th wheel trailers. Having a self-contained motorhome or trailer between 22’ and 36’ long would enable our investigators to travel to where the innocent desperately need our help – something they otherwise just could not afford. If possible, we ask that if you have a motorhome or travel trailer you aren’t using, please donate it to the US~Observer, or sell it to us at an affordable price.

If you don’t have one, no worries, spread the word to your friends and relatives.

Please Help Us Help the Innocent. Thanks!

Call 541-474-7885 or email the US~Observer at editor@usobserver.com.