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Florida plastic surgeon arrested months after wife died following procedure
A plastic surgeon in northwest Florida has been arrested more than six months after his wife died after she went into cardiac arrest while he was performing procedures on her, authorities announced Monday.
Benjamin Jacob Brown, 41, was arrested Monday for second-degree felony homicide: manslaughter by culpable negligence, the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office
Deputies were called to Restore Plastic Surgery in Gulf Breeze on Nov. 21, 2023, for a report of a medical emergency, and they found that his wife, Hillary Ellington Brown, had suffered cardiac arrest and was taken to a local hospital, officials said.
She was put on life support and died a week later on Nov. 28, 2023.
The sheriff’s office announced Brown was arrested Monday after an “extensive investigation” in conjunction with the medical examiner’s office and the state attorney’s office. He was booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail.
The Pensacola News Journal reported that officials determined Hillary Brown “showed signs of lidocaine toxicity” during procedures that included a muscle repair, abdominal scar revision, bilateral arm liposuction and a lip injection.
According to the newspaper, a Florida Health Department investigation concluded that Brown did not immediately call 911 after his wife became unresponsive, and he also waited at least 10 minutes before beginning CPR.
Rose Lawn Funeral Home
The health department also said Brown engaged in “medical malpractice” by performing unauthorized procedures on patients and not following sterility protocols, the Pensacola News Journal previously reported.
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office said its detectives were continuing to investigate Hilary Brown’s death.
“In accordance with our policies and procedures, SRSO investigators frequently conduct death investigations when the death was unexpected or the death occurs under unusual circumstances,” the sheriff’s office said.
Officials said the cause and manner of death is pending the receipt of the autopsy protocol from the medical examiner’s office. That process can take several months as it involves extensive laboratory and toxicology tests.
Marty Ellington, Hillary Brown’s father, told the Pensacola News Journal that his daughter died because of “one careless individual.”
“His ego and arrogance overshadowed the need for help, prolonging oxygen deprivation to her brain and ultimately causing her death,” Ellington told the newspaper. “Ben Brown took the mother from my grandchildren, my only daughter and our brightest star.”
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Beryl, the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, took shape Friday as it barreled its way toward the Caribbean.
Beryl was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it approached the Windward Islands in the West Indies, the National Hurricane Center reported in its latest advisory late Friday night.
Beryl was centered about 1,110 miles southeast of Barbados, the hurricane center said, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and tropical storm-force winds extending 45 miles from its center. It was moving west at 18 mph.
The system was expected to hit the Windward Islands by late Sunday or Monday, and was forecast to bring anything from 3 to 6 inches of rain to the Windward Islands and Barbados. No watches or warnings were yet in place.
NOAA
Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, according to the Associated Press.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30. According to the hurricane center, the season’s first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August, which would make Beryl unusual if it were to reach hurricane strength. In a report released last month, the NOAA predicted an “above average” hurricane season with 17 to 25 storms, 8 to 13 hurricanes and 4 to 7 major hurricanes of category 3 or higher.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds greater than 74 mph.
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Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”
