Security chief faces charges in office fire

Web posted May 18, 2000

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By Mark Mathis
Staff Writer

The head of security for James Brown Enterprises has been charged with starting the April 28 fire that destroyed the soul singer's west Augusta offices.

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Richard Glenn, 39, started the fire to destroy documents connecting him to a forged $75,000 check he had stolen from Mr. Brown, Richmond County sheriff's Maj. Ken Autry said.

After opening an account in his and Mr. Brown's names at Georgia Bank and Trust, Mr. Glenn forged Mr. Brown's name on the check and deposited it, Maj. Autry said.

Mr. Glenn was charged Tuesday with arson, first-degree forgery and theft by taking. No other suspects are being investigated. Mr. Brown had no idea his name was on the account, Maj. Autry said.

Between the deposit April 14 and the fire two weeks later, Mr. Glenn withdrew $35,000 from the account and deposited it into a personal account at Regions Bank, authorities said.

On the day of the fire, Mr. Glenn closed the account at Georgia Bank and Trust and transferred the balance into an identical account at the bank, sheriff's Investigator Richard Roundtree said.

Investigators seized $35,000 at Mr. Glenn's residence and $11,000 in his two bank accounts. A search for other accounts in his name was under way Wednesday, Investigator Roundtree said.

The sheriff's department was checking for fingerprints on a new gasoline can found in the trash of a house Mr. Glenn had access to, Maj. Autry said. Investigators have said an accelerant was poured in the area of the records to increase the fire's strength.

Witnesses reported seeing Mr. Glenn among onlookers while firefighters battled the blaze.

Mr. Glenn has worked for more than five years as head of security for James Brown Enterprises and, to a lesser extent, the entertainer's personal security, said Buddy Dallas, Mr. Brown's lawyer.

``This is incredible,'' Mr. Dallas said. ``How does one bite the hand that feeds him?''

Mr. Brown was on a two-week West Coast concert tour and unavailable for comment Wednesday.

The forgery charge is Mr. Glenn's third in Richmond County. He was charged in 1983 and 1991 and was in prison from December 1996 to June 1997 after violating his seven-year probation sentence from a 1992 forgery conviction, according to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Mr. Glenn is the son of Willie Glenn, a longtime friend of Mr. Brown's, Mr. Dallas said.

``This will be hard for (Mr. Brown) to believe, but then I'm sure it was hard for Julius Caesar, too,'' the lawyer said.

Reach Mark Mathis at (706) 823-3227 or marmathis@yahoo.com.