Former Independence Community College football coach, Jason Brown, has been charged with 8 felonies, according to a report from the Montgomery County Chronicle. The charges center around accusations that Brown impersonated a lawyer to try and shut down negative media coverage of his program. 

Brown and ICC have been the focus of the past two seasons of "Last Chance U" on Netflix. 

Brown allegedly sent a cease and desist e-mail to the Chronicle after the newspaper published an editorial regarding a fight between the Independence and Garden City teams in October.

According to the report, Brown posed as an attorney with the Cochran Law Firm in California. 

A few months later, a reporter for the Chronicle received additional correspondence from someone claiming to be a part of the firm after the paper published reports of a conversation between Brown and one of his players. 

Brown reportedly texted a German player, "I am your new Hitler." The comment sparked outrage and led to Brown's resignation. 

The fourth season of "Last Chance U", will be released on July 19th on Netflix. 

To read more on the investigation, read the original report from the Montgomery County Chronicle below. 

INDEPENDENCE — Criminal charges of blackmail and identity theft have been filed against a former Independence Community College football coach who is the centerpiece of a Netflix television program.

On Friday afternoon, Jason Michael Brown, who coached the ICC football program from 2015 to 2019, was formally charged with a total of 10 criminal counts:

• four counts of blackmail,

• four counts of identity theft,

• and two counts of criminal false communication.

Blackmail and identity theft are felonies; criminal false communication is considered a misdemeanor. The charges were filed by the Montgomery County Attorney’s Office.

No hearing date has yet been set on those charges.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred in the final months of Brown’s coaching stint at ICC.

Larry Markle, county attorney, said the case stems from a series of cease-and-desist emails that were sent to the Montgomery County Chronicle, starting in October 2018, from an attorney purported to be from the Cochran Law Firm of Los Angeles, Calif. The attorney, who claimed to represent Jason Brown, attempted to stop the Chronicle of its editorial criticism of Brown following the 2018 release of the Netflix show “Last Chance U” as well as an altercation involving Brown and the staff of Garden City Community College’s football program when the two teams played in the fall 2018 season.

The Chronicle received more cease-and-desist emails purported to be from the same attorney when a controversy arose in February 2019 concerning Brown’s punishment of a German football player on the ICC roster. Brown sent a text message to the player, “I am your new Hitler” in an attempt to change or ridicule the player following the player’s violation of team rules. The German player then notified college administrators and the Chronicle regarding the text message. Brown would eventually resign his position as head coach.

Similar emails from the Cochran Law Firm were also sent to the Independence Daily Reporter and a former ICC assistant football coach in an attempt to silence them after they published articles, political cartoons or aired criticism on social media concerning Brown’s coaching style and handling of the Hitler text reference.

However, the lawyer who was identified in those emails was not the one who sent them. The authenticity of those emails came into question within the Montgomery County Chronicle in February. Suspecting that the emails were fraudulent, the Chronicle turned over those email communications to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department for further investigation.

That investigation into the origin of the emails alleges that Brown initiated the email communication by stealing the identity of an actual attorney and sending those emails through a Yahoo.com email account that had a domain name similar to the Cochran Law Firm. Those emails ultimately were traced to an IP address on Brown’s computer devices.

Brown is best known for being the focus of season 3 of “Last Chance U” on Netflix. Season 3 covered ICC’s fall 2017 season, which included the college’s first league championship in 30 years as well as the school’s first-ever bowl victory.

Season 4, which covers the fall 2018 season, is expected to be released on July 19. Netflix has released a trailer of season 4, which follows the football program’s record-setting season in 2017 to a campaign in 2018 that was followed with losses and controversy, eventually leading to Brown’s resignation in February 2019.

As in all criminal cases, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury or an admission of guilt.