A trial date has been set for an Eight Mile man charged in a long-running child sex abuse investigation that has stretched across Baldwin and Mobile counties since 2012.
William Brownlee, 50, is scheduled to stand trial October 14 at the Baldwin County Courthouse in Bay Minette on charges of second-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse. A Baldwin County grand jury indicted Brownlee in 2012, but the case has moved slowly through the court system in the years since.
Brownlee had been expected to plead guilty during a hearing in early August, but changed his mind in the courtroom before entering a plea. His attorney later filed a motion asking a judge to dismiss the charges outright, arguing that the indictment failed to properly spell out the allegations against his client. A judge denied that motion in late September, clearing the way for the case to proceed toward trial.
Brownlee’s case is one of several stemming from a broader investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse within an extended family network in Baldwin and Mobile counties. Since 2012, at least 11 people have faced charges connected to the investigation, which became entangled with the disappearance of Brittney Wood, a Mobile County woman who has been missing since May 2012. Brownlee was reportedly a friend of Wood’s late uncle, Donald Holland, who died by suicide shortly after Wood went missing.
Several of the other defendants tied to the investigation have already resolved their cases through plea agreements or youthful offender status. Wood’s brother was granted youthful offender status in a Baldwin County case. An uncle pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and sodomy charges in both Baldwin and Mobile counties and faced sentencing hearings in the following months. Holland’s son was also granted youthful offender status on charges in Baldwin County, while another relative pleaded guilty to a sodomy charge in Baldwin County and continued to face separate charges in Mobile County.
The scope and duration of the investigation have made it one of the more closely watched criminal cases in Baldwin County in recent years, with multiple family members facing prosecution across two counties simultaneously. Brownlee’s trial will be one of the few cases from the investigation to proceed to a full trial rather than end in a plea agreement.
Court officials have not indicated whether Brownlee’s trial date will hold or face further delays, a common occurrence in complex, multi-defendant cases moving through Baldwin County Circuit Court. The Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office continues to prosecute the remaining cases connected to the investigation as they move toward resolution.