Sen. Darius Brown acquitted on charges

A New Castle County jury acquitted Sen. Darius Brown, D-Wilmington, Jan. 6 on charges stemming from a May 2021 incident in which a woman said he punched her.

The jury found Brown not guilty of offensive touching and disorderly conduct, charges filed against him following the incident at a Wilmington restaurant where the two had dined. The jury also found Brown not guilty of a lesser charge of attempted offensive touching that New Castle County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carl Danberg had allowed the jury to consider.

Although the jury found Brown not guilty, Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola, D-Newark, said the Senate Rules and Ethics Committee will meet in the coming weeks to review all allegations that have been leveled against Brown. This includes a verbal altercation involving Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, D-Pennwood.

“What remains clear, however, is that Sen. Brown has been involved in multiple confrontations in public spaces over the last year, regardless of whether that behavior rose to the level of criminal conduct. As elected representatives of the people we serve, I believe we owe it to Delawareans to hold ourselves to a higher level of accountability and conduct,” Sokola said. “I will have no further comment on the matter until that time.”