A Douglas County jury Monday afternoon convicted a 33-year-old Lawrence woman of endangering two girls who said they were sexually assaulted by her husband at their home.

“What it is about is you expect people to protect children, whether it’s their own or others’,” said Amy McGowan, a chief assistant Douglas County district attorney who prosecuted the case.

Natasha Brown

Donald Brown

The jury deliberated for about two hours before arriving at guilty verdicts for Natasha M. Brown on all counts: two counts of aggravated endangerment of a child and one count of lewd and lascivious behavior.

“In spite of how lawyers feel about a case and in spite of how they advocate for their clients, the jury makes the decision,” said Brown’s attorney, Napoleon Crews. “The jury has spoken in this case, and Natasha has to live with that.”

Crews had argued the woman testified that her husband, Donald Brown, threatened her and tried to intimidate her, making it difficult to question him or go to authorities with her suspicions.

Prosecutors presented evidence in the four-day trial accusing Natasha Brown of protecting her husband instead of telling authorities her husband was sexually abusing the two girls, who are now 9 and 11, over a two-year period at the couple’s north-central Lawrence home.

McGowan has filed a motion asking Douglas County District Judge Peggy Kittel to depart from the state sentencing guidelines based on the age of the victims and on Brown having a relationship of trust with the children. 

Crews said because Brown has no past criminal history she would receive probation under the sentencing guidelines, but prosecutors are asking Kittel to give her a prison sentence.

Kittel will rule on that motion at a hearing Oct. 25.

Donald Brown faces a January trial on multiple charges, including three counts of child rape. He’s accused of having sex with and molesting the two girls from June 2008 to May of this year.

The girls and their siblings, who lived with their parents in Topeka, would frequently spend time at the Browns’ home after school one day a week before evening church services.

The girls’ family met the Browns through Heritage Baptist Church, which is northwest of Lawrence. Prosecutors have said that in May the girls told their parents and accused Donald Brown of having sex with them. Police later arrested the Browns.