Man pleads guilty to extorting Hampton council member

HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — The man charged with extorting a Hampton City Council member has been sentenced by a Hampton Circuit Court.

On July 2, Michael Eugene Brown II pleaded guilty to threatening to extort $12,000 from Hampton Councilman Chris Bowman .

In April 2022, Bowman reported the extortion to Hampton Police. Bowman told police he paid a prostitute $200 to perform a sex act on him at a Newport News hotel in January of that year. When the city council member returned to his car he found that his cellphone and several other items were missing, according to court records.

About a week after his encounter with the prostitute, Bowman said he then began to receive texts messages and calls from an unknown man, later identified as Brown. Brown told Bowman he had his cellphone and threatened to expose its contents if the councilman didn’t pay him.

Brown was sentenced to five years with four years and six months suspended. He has been ordered to pay $550 in court costs and owes $12,000 in restitution. He will also have two years supervised probation.

When news of the extortion scandal broke, the NAACP called for Bowman’s resignation, and the Hampton City Council voted to censure him , stating that Bowman’s actions violated the moral and ethical standards of council members.

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