Riverside judge grants "compassionate release" to convicted sex offender

A Riverside Superior Court judge granted the "compassionate release" Thursday of a 73-year-old convicted sex offender who has served 11 years of his 45-year prison sentence. 

In 2013, Frank Duane Brown pled guilty to six felony counts of forced lewd and lascivious sexual acts on a child under the age of 14 years old and was sentenced to 45 years in prison, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. 

While the DA's Office opposed the petition for Brown's release, Judge Scott P. Williams determined that California's compassionate release law applied because of Brown's medical diagnosis of metastatic liver cancer. 

"While early release has become increasingly common, it is appalling that this release was even being considered given the offender's violent crime against a child," District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. 

The District Attorney's office released a video statement of the victim in this case, referring to her as "Jane Doe." 

"... I lived with this man and he raped me almost every single day," Jane Doe said in the video. 

"Finally after all the pain and trauma that I experienced – I'm like oh, it's over, like they said he's going to jail. So all that pain that I had inside, I worked really, really, really hard to try to get myself in a better place mentally and emotionally, that, I'm forever scarred." 

Judge Williams granted the compassionate release petition and ordered Brown released from prison within the next 30 days. 

California's compassionate release law allows courts to resentence people to time served if the following criteria are met: Terminal illness, permanently medically incapacitated and requiring 24-hour care, people who are no longer a threat to public safety, and that the person has a place to go once released.