DITTMER (MO)
Hoodline [San Francisco CA]
November 13, 2026
By Richard Dawson
Richard Thomas Brown was arrested in Dittmer, Missouri, in 2020, in connection with a Dallas County case.
Brown was arrested in 2020 in connection with allegations of child sexual abuse.
Brown’s lawyer, Patrick McClain, said Brown needed somewhere to stay where he could receive medical care.
The investigation involved authorities in several states. Dallas police used church records to locate Brown at a New Mexico monastery and interviewed him there in May 2019, the Dallas Morning News reported. NBCDFW reported that police arrested him in Dittmer, Missouri, in 2020, and that he was booked in Jefferson County. Brown was released after posting $100,000 bond.
Reporting on the arrest-warrant affidavit, NBCDFW said Brown told detectives the Diocese of Dallas knew of abuse allegations against him as early as 1987. The report also described a psychologist’s 1994 assessment of Brown. Separately, the Diocese says its review of clergy files began in 2018 and expanded that year to cover active and former priests back to 1950. It published its list of clergy with credible allegations in January 2019, and Brown was included, according to the Diocese’s list information.
The Diocese’s communications with police and its actions toward Brown are described in separate reports. NBCDFW reported that the Diocese supplied Brown-related files to Dallas police in December 2018 and sent police a letter in September 2019 expressing concern and hope that he would be arrested. The Dallas Morning News reported that police searched diocesan offices and a storage site in May 2019 as part of a broader investigation. According to the Diocese, Brown was barred from public priestly ministry in 2002 and formally removed from the priesthood in September 2019. The Diocese has said it provides him no financial support.
The criminal case is separate from three civil cases filed by alleged victims against Brown and the Diocese. The plaintiffs alleged diocesan officials failed to protect them and concealed Brown’s abuse history; all three cases were settled for undisclosed amounts, the Dallas Morning News reported. Attorney Tahira Khan Merritt represented a civil plaintiff.
What legal standards and diocesan records establish
The timing of a case and the time allowed to bring a charge are separate questions. In a separate Texas case, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals said speedy-trial claims are evaluated by balancing the length and reasons for delay, whether the defendant asserted the right and any resulting prejudice; that opinion did not decide Brown’s case. Separately, the Second Administrative Judicial Region of Texas says felony cases should, as far as reasonably possible, reach trial or final disposition within 12 months of arrest or return of indictment, whichever is earlier. That time standard does not establish whether or how it applies to Brown’s case, or answer the limitations question. See the Fourteenth Court of Appeals opinion and the Second Administrative Judicial Region’s rules. The Diocese says its clergy list covers priests with credible allegations of abuse that occurred within the Diocese of Dallas and was compiled from diocesan records. Brown’s inclusion reflects that administrative review, not a criminal court finding, according to the Diocese’s explanation of the list.