An assistant district attorney for Erie County has been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct after Buffalo Police found evidence in the course of an unrelated investigation.
It's alleged that Shannon-Brown, 28, shared confidential information with a convicted felon they may be friends with.
De'Lenci Shannon-Brown was arrested Wednesday night during a traffic stop, where Shannon-Brown was allegedly smoking cannabis in the car. Shannon-Brown was also charged with driving while under the influence of drugs, also a misdemeanor.
Buffalo Police had been investigating Brown prior to the traffic stop, and the District Attorney's office had been aware of the investigation and limited Brown's working abilities until their arrest. After their arrest, Brown was terminated from the DA's office.
"While Buffalo Police was investigating an ongoing, unrelated crime that was completely unrelated to this, the Buffalo Police Department stumbled across, through cell phone records of an again, an unrelated investigation was occurring, that a phone number came up to an assistant district attorney assigned, for Erie County, assigned to city court," said Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. "That information, which came up off of that subpoena that we were reviewing, obviously was very concerning. We spun up that investigation to go in a different direction, further identifying and building up information on this Assistant District Attorney."
The District Attorney's office says Brown had only been working for their office as an ADA since June 10. They also interned in the DA's office during law school, and then worked for a brief time in the DA's office pending the results of their bar exam in 2021. The DA's office says after Shannon-Brown passed the bar in May of this year, they were re-hired by the office.
The New York Unified Court System does show an De'Lenci Nigelle Shannon-Brown admitted to the system as an attorney as of May 30, 2024. The record shows Shannon-Brown attended the University at Buffalo Law School.
