Female Teacher Took Nude Choir Photos, Cops Say

June 12, 2005 -- -- A southern Kentucky teacher is facing charges she gave her high school chorus students alcohol before a field trip to perform in New York City, and one of her students told police that the teacher had taken "half nude" photographs of him and a female student in their high school chorus room.

Choir teacher Danielle Brown was arrested Thursday morning after Franklin, Ky., police executed a search warrant at her Bowling Green home Wednesday night, looking for computers, a digital camera and other items. Police have refused to release details about what was found.

Brown, the wife of a Baptist preacher who quit her teaching job on June 6, after school officials learned of the allegations that she had given students alcohol, was charged with six counts of unlawful transaction with a minor in the third degree.

The trouble allegedly started on the night of June 2, when the 21 members of the high school chorus stayed in the school overnight in preparation for a 4 a.m. departure to catch a flight to New York City, where they were to perform at Carnegie Hall.

"It was meant to be a special, special trip," Simpson County Schools superintendent Jim Flynn said.

Brown, however, apparently did not make arrangements to have two parents serve as additional chaperones, and the students were alone with her overnight, Flynn said.

School officials learned the next morning that Brown allegedly gave some of the students alcohol, though they declined to say how they learned about the events of that night.

When Flynn learned that Brown was the only chaperone with the students in New York, he sent Franklin-Simpson High School Principal Gary Houchens to join the group.

With the principal along, the group performed at Carnegie Hall, and Brown offered her resignation, Flynn said.

But that was not the end of the alleged problems. Brown and two students did not return from New York with the rest of the choir on June 6, and then the three missed another flight they were supposed to take the next morning.

The airline had overbooked the flight the group was supposed to take on June 6, and one of the students was going to have to stay behind, but Brown offered to stay instead, Flynn said.

"One student kind of got upset that the teacher was being left behind and left the gate," he said. "Another student went to assist that student and the flight had to leave. Consequently those students missed the flight."

The next day they missed another flight home and parents became worried, so Flynn called police in New York and asked them to escort the students and Brown to the airport, he said.

"It's a terrible experience," Flynn said. "Parents put their children in our care and that's an awesome responsibility and it's a very important responsibility and we take it very seriously."

It was after Brown and the two students finally returned late Tuesday that a boy told police "that Danielle Brown did take pictures of him and another female student in the chorus room of Franklin-Simpson High School and that they were 'half nude,'" according to the search warrant issued to police in Warren County to search her home.

"Someone told me the police had been out here but I didn't believe them," said Janet Taylor, one of Brown's neighbors. "I'm thinking why would police be at the church people's house? I couldn't believe it because they go to church and stuff all the time. I just couldn't believe she would do something like that."

Police had a search warrant to seize numerous items from Brown's apartment, including a Kodak digital camera, seven floppy disks, a DVD player, an mp3 player, seven compact discs, two cellular phones, and a computer and hard drive.

The Simpson County attorney said he does not feel it is appropriate to comment about Brown's arrest at this time. The Franklin Police officer who handled the case did not return phone calls from ABC News affiliate WBKO-TV in Bowling Green.

Brown, who has declined to speak to reporters, was released on a $3,000 surety bond from the Simpson County Jail.

ABC News affiliate WBKO-TV in Bowling Green, Ky., contributed to this report.