Brown, Wayland (Fr.)

Father Wayland Brown was ordained in July 1977 at Catholic University’s Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. In 2004, Brown pleaded guilty in Montgomery County to sexual abuse and battery. While at St. Rose of Lima Church in Gaithersburg, Brown regularly fondled and raped a 12-year-old boy from 1973 to 1975. Brown was also charged with sexually abusing the survivor’s younger brother. He was removed from active ministry in 1988 and laicized in 2004.

Two survivors sued the Diocese of Savannah for abuse committed by Brown in the 1970s and 1980s. The Diocese entered large settlements with the survivors in the late 1990s and mid-2000s. In 2019, Brown pleaded guilty to nine charges, including six counts of child sex abuse, for sexual abuse in South Carolina in 1978 and 1988.