Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Killer' Plastic Surgeon Drops Bombshell in Wife's Death

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

Dr. Ben Brown is charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of his wife, Hillary Brown. Hillary died in November 2023, eight days after suffering complications during a procedure performed by Ben in his office in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Now Dr. Brown is pushing back on the state's finding on Hillary's cause of death. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy digs into the details in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents bonus for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

He's had numerous things down their eyes or face or stomach. So this isn't our first rodeo as far as we've taken. Getting done, that's what's scary. A plastic surgeon, his stunning wife and a procedure under the knife that turns deadly. I guess a plastic surgeon was working on his wife. And then we were told she went into cardiac arrest. But I'm not sure she actually did. But now questions are swirling.

And the doctor and husband at the center of it all is challenging his wife's true cause of death. I'll break it down and why this case is far from over. I'm Jeanette Levy and this is Crime Fix. Before we get started on this really tragic case, I want to tell you about an app that I've been using that I really like. It's called Upside. It will give you cash back on things that you buy all of the time like carry out gas and groceries. Here's how Upside works.

You download the free app, claim an offer at one of the locations and pay with your credit card. Verify that purchase and then just like that, you will see that you get cashed. back. So say one night I want pizza. I will search upside offers. After I spend, money appears in my app that I can transfer straight into my bank account. Upsides frequent users actually get an average of $254 back per year, which is amazing. So to start getting your cash back, click the link in the description, scan that QR code you see right there on your screen, or use our promo code Crime Fix to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. Hillary Brown was a mother to two daughters and a son. She was married to a plastic surgeon and even worked with him

at his successful practice in Santa Rosa County that's in Florida's Panhandle. Sadly and tragically, though, Hillary Brown's life ended suddenly and shockingly in November 2023, days after investigators said things went terribly wrong as Hillary's husband, Dr. Ben Brown, was performing a procedure on her in his office. Dr. Brown ended up in handcuffs, later, accused of manslaughter by culpable negligence in Hillary's death. Ben Brown's trial, it's scheduled to begin in August, but he and his lawyer, they are pushing back hard on the medical examiner's determination on what actually caused Hillary's death. Right now, the medical examiner says Hillary died as the result of lytocaine toxicity. Lidicane is a drug used

to numb people during procedures. But Brown and his lawyer say, not so fast. In fact, they claim the isn't even qualified to make that determination. I'll explain more about all of this in a little bit with Florida-based defense attorney Tim Jansen when he joins me. The claims the defense is making are interesting and concerning. But first, let's go back to the very beginning. It was November 21st, 23, when a 911 call came into Santa Rosa County. Santa Rosa 911 police fire ambulance. I have an emergency. All right. Who do you need? Police fire ambulance? Ambulance? We have an unstable patient. Okay, tell me the address. Hello, hello. Ma'am, what's your address? Okay, are you there with the patient now? Yes.

Okay, we do have help on the way. What exactly happened? She was having surgery. This is a plastic surgery office. She's unstable, she's having seizures, I think. Okay. And what kind of procedure was she be an operator? on for? There is multiple ones. Okay, can you tell me what they were? Addominal lipo, fat transfer, different things. I don't know them off the top of my head right now. Okay, sweetie.

We have help on the way. They're coming to emergency response, okay? If they'll just make sure that they have the AED attached to the patient and have it ready to go as well and tell them to keep up with the chest compressions, okay? Okay. All right. If anything changes, call us back. back help from the way. Thank you. Bye-bye. EMTs arrived to treat Hillary Brown. There's another pure giving snacks, and that's when we got some great P. That's good. They got a

boss too. Deputies spoke to other staff at the office. One deputy feels like something is off, and he calls his supervisor. Just let me inform you, I guess. I don't see reason for more now, but basically we got a med call. doctor's office here in Navarre where I guess a plastic surgeon was working on his wife and then we were told she went into cardiac arrest but I'm not sure she actually did she it sounds like there were other people present in doing this surgery and it sounds like she went into several seizures but I guess they were saying it really didn't look very good as to her She wasn't doing very well when she left.

And they did transport and everything. And I would say I would be a lot more like, uh-oh, if it was just him and her in the room, but there were some nurses that were present as well. So I'll just have him document it if that's cool with you. If you talk to Lance, just let him know unless you think more should be done. We don't hear the supervisor side of the call, but the deputy expresses his concern. Right. Right. It just is weird that it's the doctor and his wife. You know what I mean? So, but like I said, he wasn't alone with her anyway during the procedure. There were other people assisting. So I guess Seville is going to just get all their names and do a quick info on it just in case something comes back where, you know, somebody says, oh, he was trying to kill her. You know, if it had just been the doctor and his wife in there, I would think, hmm, we're going to have to. going to have to do an investigation.

That's a little too. I would think, you know, if she did die, just for justice for her, we at least need to investigate and make sure things on the up and up. But if there were witnesses in the room, that changes it a little bit. Well, I guess so. And there was like, there was several parts to it. So she has undergone similar surgeries and been sedated. So she was fully sedated.

They did something with a scar in her abdomen. And then she came out of it and was walking around. And they were going to do like injections in her face. And she even mixed up whatever was going into her face. Like some fat. I don't totally understand it. But when they started doing injections, they did like over one eye and then the other eye. And then she went to these seizures.

He got like four pretty good seizures before UMS got here. And then, you know, we were told she was cardiac arrest. So have not confirmed that with EMS, but they did say he didn't look good. So I was like, hmm. But yeah. After medics take Hillary Brown to the hospital. Deputies interview staff at Dr. Brown's office. I was the scar-free vision on her abdomen.

That was done. Yeah, that was done. She was up walking around, perfectly fine. She was even missing her own fat transfer wherever she was doing it. He started to inject her lifts with a numbing medication, which is typically lytocaine, ebby, and sodium bicarb. He injected there, injected her right, her left eye. She was talking about some blurriness, but her eye was swollen, so of course she couldn't see. Injected the right eye, and that's when she started seizing shortly after, so the right injecting and started.

Okay. And did she go into cardiac arrest? She seized for a few minutes. Okay. Would stop, seize again. Each seizure probably lasting three to four minutes. Okay. Not a rainfall, but pretty close. What come out of it, she probably had to tell those four or five.

Okay. Before anyone could get working on her. Yeah, I mean, we were blood pressure. I had a heart rate the whole time, everything like that. Okay. During the procedure, was there anything else? or was there anything unusual? No, typical.

All normal. Hillary Brown died seven days later at the hospital. And the investigation into her death continued. In 2024, Dr. Ben Brown was charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence. Detectives wrote in an arrest warrant. This employee began by stating she had only worked for the business for a few days before this occurred. In that short time, she expressed there was a lot of negligence in the office that led to Hillary's cardiac arrest. She stated prior to the surgery, the victim took a plethora of pills.

However, she was unaware of what they were. She stated the victim had prepared her own IV bags, which were supposed to contain diluted xylacane, which was being used as a local anesthetic. During the surgery, the IV bags ran out, at which time Brown poured two containers into a bowl. He didn't dilute them or anything and began to inject her arms and later her face. When he did this, Hillary began to say that her vision was blurry. She said her face was really puffy, but Brown continued. She stated she thought that was a sign she was overdosing, and this is when she began convulsing.

Detectives also say that Ben Brown didn't call 911 right away for help, waiting 10 to 15 minutes. That coupled with other factors, including the medical examiner determining that Hillary Brown died from lytocaine toxicity, led prosecutors to charge him. But now, less than three months before Ben Brown's trial is scheduled to begin, Ben Brown and his lawyer, are challenging the state's cause of death and asking for what's called a Dobert hearing to determine whether the medical examiner Dr. Deanna Oleski is qualified to testify about her own findings. Brown's attorney wrote in his motion, as a part of the state's presentation, the state intends to use Dr. Oleski, MD, to testify as to cause of death, that being lytocaine toxicity, as referenced in the post-mortem examination as being complications from

lytocaine toxicity. Dr. Oleski has no training or expertise in the area of toxicology. During Dr. Oleski's deposition, she specifically testified that she's not a toxicologist. Now, it's not unusual for a medical examiner to rely on the findings of a toxicologist when determining cause of death, but there were other things that concerned Brown's attorney. Further, on various occasions, Dr. Oleski indicated that the line of questioning related to the lytocaine levels and their impact on a person would be, quote, better asked of a toxicologist or indicated that she could not be a toxicologist based on her training. It is clear that Dr. Oleski does not have the expertise to opine as to whether the levels of

lyrcine in a person's system at the time of the incident were lethal or not. This is a critical finding of fact for the jury to determine and allowing a non-expert to provide inaccurate and unsupported testimony would be highly prejudicial to Dr. Brown. And get this, Brown's attorney, famed criminal defense attorney Mark Omera, pointed out that there are questions about whether lytocaine toxicity actually caused Hillary Brown's death at all. Omera points to a Florida Department of Health hearing where sanctions were being considered against Dr. Brown. Omera writes, in that case, Department of Health versus Benjamin Brown, the hearing officer found that, quote, Dr. Deanna Alasky MD, a medical examiner, performed the post-mortem

examination of HB on December 1st, 2023, the department acknowledged that based on her assessment using a rule out theory, she concluded that the cause of death was complications related to lytocaine toxicity because it was the highest on the differential. By contrast, the hearing officer found respondents expert Dr. Borgert credibly concluded that lytocaine was not the cause of HB's symptoms or death. This is a critical finding by a hearing officer after extensive testimony that the findings by the medical examiner, Dr. Oleski, were not accurate. That seems like a big deal. In the end, the state of Florida actually suspended Dr. Brown's medical license for a year,

in part because he failed to call 911 right away when Hillary started having complications at his office. So how is this new information going to impact Dr. Brown's criminal case? So to really break this down and to dig into the claims being made by the defense in this case, I want to bring in Tim Jansen. He is a criminal defense attorney who practices in Florida in the panhandle. He is not affiliated with this case at all. Tim, thank you so much for joining me.

I appreciate it. Glad to be here, In Janette. I don't know if you were as stunned as I was when you were reading through this motion for the Dobert hearing, but there are some really interesting claims being made by the defense in this case. First of all, though, I want to start with a Dobert hearing. And I want you to kind of dig into that because me as a, you know, just a news person, a layperson, I know what this is, somebody who covers this stuff. But this is a certain standard experts have to meet in order to offer testimony. So tell us a little bit about that.

Well, Adavard is when you bring in an expert or someone with expertise skills. It doesn't have to be an expert. You can be an expert in certain things like firearms. You can be an expert in tracking down people if you have specific training and experience. But to bring in a doctor and for a witness to testify as an expert, they have to have certain either educational skills, training, and their work has to be studied by peers. It can't be based on assumption, speculation. It's got to be peer reviewed. And so it's such a high standard because then you're telling a jury, you can treat this person as an expert and this person can give an opinion in a courtroom. no one else can give an opinion in a courtroom.

You either know a fact, you see something. You can't give your opinion. It's an objection, but an expert can give an opinion. So you want to make sure that that person has the right skills and necessary to give that opinion, especially the opinion that they're giving. You know, a medical examiner can give an opinion to a lot of things. But if it's not within their medical expertise, then they can't give that opinion. And that's what's happening in this case.

We have a medical examiner who is not a toxicologist. And the first thing you do when you have a murder case, state has to prove a death. What caused a death? And now you have a medical report and a medical examiner who's kind of guessing at what the death was. So it's interesting. What's interesting here is the doctor, Dr. O'Leod. She is a medical examiner. She is a medical examiner. She is a medical doctor. However, however, most medical examiners are not toxicologists. Usually that is farmed out. Right. And they take blood or they take whatever and then they send that out for toxicology, for talks. And in my experience in covering these cases, that can take anywhere from six to eight to 12, 14 weeks. and then you get those results back and you make your final determination, or at least the medical examiner does, about a cause of death once you have all of that information.

Well, here's another problem you have. This person didn't just die. This person was alive for like a week in the hospital, was basically brain dead. So the body was absorbing what was in the system. So you couldn't do like a normal dead body where the body doesn't absorb it and someone else can do the toxicology exam. because the toxic levels would probably be the same, this body was still alive. I think she was on a tube or something.

So you do, you have to rely on the, I think the hospital did a toxicology report when she was there. And I think that's where the report came in, a letter came in to Dr. Oleski saying that the levels were not toxic levels, but that Oleski ruled it out and didn't give it much thought. Yeah, and I want to put this, I want to put some of this stuff up on the screen and read it to the viewers and then we'll break it down. You know, we've already seen how Dr. Oleski testified she has no training or expertise in toxicology. She specifically testified she's not a toxicologist, but she makes this determination that lytocaine toxicity was the cause of Hillary Brown.

death. However, the defense writes in its motion requesting this Daubert hearing, critical to this issue, Dr. Oleski testified that though she had received correspondence from a well-known toxicologist Dr. Christopher Borgert in October of 2025, and even though the letter addressed various concerns with the conclusion reached by Dr. Oleski as it related to lytocaine toxicity and supported that concern with references to medical data slash science that support that it could not have been lytocaine toxicity. Dr. Oleski testified that while she was familiar with the letter, she did not make much of the letter. That sounds like very concerning to me because her job is to look at all of the available facts, look at the circumstances surrounding Hillary's death, look at the medical

evidence and then make a determination on cause of death. And then that cause of death is used by the prosecutors and police to figure out whether criminal charges are warranted. So when you read that the defense wrote this, Tim, that she's just kind of like, yeah, I don't really give that letter much value. I don't give it much weight or whatever she said. How concerning is that? Well, it's problematic for the prosecution and it's a goldmine for the defense. It's what you're basically saying is don't bother me with more facts and science. I've already rendered my opinion. So you have an expert, this toxicology, who look at the tax levels, says this is not toxic levels.

And she got that and said, I'm not a toxicologist, but I'm not going to really, that doesn't concern me. You already made my decision. That's more of a reason why she probably should not be allowed to testify as to the cause of death. because she's not an expert and there was conflicting evidence that she disregarded. And so either the court's not going to let her give a cause of death or they're probably going to let that doctor testify

to compete with her cause of death because this is a problem. It's not overwhelming because they're charged with culpable negligence. You know, they can say their overall conduct of this doctor doctor was so bad that it caused the death, and you could still be convicted, right? By not giving help, by letting her do this on her own, letting her taking pills, not keeping track of the dosage of the anesthesia, what he gave. And then when she went into respiratory failure or a seizure, he failed to call 911 when

medical personnel asked him. And then he was yelling and screaming, what did she take? He should have known what she was taking. He is responsible. when that patient is on the table with surgery, he has to know. And he didn't. He may very well still be found guilty of manslaughter by culpable negligence just because of all of the other circumstances surrounding her death.

I mean, but. And, Janette, I think this is horrible for the medical examiner for her to say I'm disregarding it, to say I'm not a toxicologist. She should bring somebody in. and if it conflicts with her opinion, then maybe she says, I don't know the cause of death. But to rule that out and just put that in there when it's conflicting by a toxicologist is troubling. But as you mentioned, though, it's a goldmine for the defense. And really, you know, when we look at these criminal cases, obviously the state has the burden of proof here.

The defense, they have no burden. And this is a thread that they can pull on to basically, this. this is something they can point to to cast a pall over the entire investigation into Hillary's death and he still may be negligent in her death,

but what is concerning here is that the defense is saying the Department of Health didn't even believe that lytocaine toxicity was part of her cause of death. The Department of Health, when there was this big hearing

about whether Dr. Ben Brown should lose his license and be saying, They found that he was negligent and he should have called 911 right away. But lytocaine toxicity was not a part of this. And so if the medical board, full of medical people, looks at this and says, yeah, lightacine toxicity, we're not really interested in that. We don't see that.

How in the world does the state of Florida rely on that at trial? Well, it looks like they put themselves against the wall. because the Board of Health bring in doctors, and they review, they do peer review, they look at things, they got medically trained, and they didn't find any kind of lytocaine toxicity. In fact, they didn't even mention that in their findings. Their findings was he was negligent and everything else he did. So I would think that the defense would call some of those as possible witnesses for the defense. And once you can undermine that the cause of death was wrong by the medical exam,

that case has sunk. Because the jury's like to hear, oh, she died because of too much lytocaine and all this. Now you're going to say that didn't kill her. Now the defense has the door open. It was just a tragic accident. It's what happens when people go in surgery all the time.

There's always a risk of death. And he loved his wife and he tried, he thought he could handle it, but he certainly had no intent. Now you're not beyond a lot of life. Now you're not beyond a reasonable doubt. And that's what's so concerning here. I mean, one of your star witnesses here for the state is saying she died of lytocaine toxicity.

We've got other evidence from other experts featured in this motion saying, no, she didn't. We know she died after having this procedure happens. She starts having seizures, according to the medical board and the prosecutors. He doesn't call 911 right away. way he thinks he can take care of everything and save her. And then she, she passes away a week later. So the procedure is a huge part of this. However, I mean, it is the major part of this. You're going to put an expert up on the stand that says she died of lydicane toxicity. The defense is saying, you can't even say that. This, this is, it seems like a mess.

It's a horrible mess. And now you have a judge has to make a finding. Because one, he's got a medical exam who's not qualified to make. that finding. She admits on her own she has no training in it and she has no expertise in it and she has no physical evidence to back it up. All the scientific evidence disputes disclaim. I think the court may not let her testify as to the cause of death. Let her testify but not give a cause of death, which I don't know what the medical examiner would testify to then. But Tim, you know, these medical examiners rely on toxicology all the time to determine cause of death. So if we remove lytocaine toxicity from this, I mean, you and I, we aren't doctors, but I'm thinking to myself, then what is her cause of death?

That's, well, I think when I read her, she called it the rule out method. She ruled everything else out. She didn't find any other reason that she died. So she had no other reason to say she died than the lytocaine toxicity, which is not there, which means she's not really helping a jury, which means that it doesn't stand up the peer review. She doesn't have the expertise to do it. So I think the court may rule that she will not be able to testify as to a cause of death. What does that do to the state's case then?

Do they go back and offer him something once they don't have a cause of death? I think it all hinges on this on this. Doberty. It's ruling in the Dobert hearing. And then the defense, you know, Ben Brown is represented by Mark O'Mara. Yep. Mark O'Meara is an excellent defense attorney. 100%.

They will bring in their own experts who say, no, this is not how Hillary died. And they will opine and give their own opinion about how she died and why she died. Well, what they're probably going to do is if the judge doesn't let her, testify as to cause of death. He may say it goes to the weight, not the admissibility. You can call your witnesses. A jury can decide. But I think that the state is probably going to go forward. The father of the victim is he doesn't like this godlike complex of the ex-husband or the husband. And let a jury decide if his actions, because the standard they need to prove is just so bad that she died that they have those facts. Do they really? Do they really?

really have to say she died from lydocaine toxicity or does she they say she died because he was so negligent so much culpable negligence by a medical doctor that he caused her death and they could still maybe get a conviction but it's not going to be easy because the defense is going to be hey it was a surgery she consented does it all the time things went wrong he tried to help her he loved her and that things happen and the jury will decide but the fact that are not good. What he did, what he failed to do, having her do her own IV, letting her take pills, and him getting her drugs, valum, and anesthesia and not keeping the dosage. Then when she went into a seizure, he didn't call 911 immediately. This is a godlike guy. A lot of plastic surgeons

are like that. They have this godlike that they can fix your body and make you beautiful. So I'm godlike. I've seen a lot of them like that that think they can do no wrong. And so, jury selection is going to be key. That's why they want to change venue because he's been maligned in the community. It's probably, but I don't think that's going to work either. No, I, yeah, I don't think this case warrants. It's not a big enough case to warrant a change of venue. You can find 12 jurors in Santa Rosa County who have not been like in that close time.

They don't know anything about this case. They don't have a newspaper. They don't watch TV. Right. I agree. Well, we're going to keep. a close eye on it. Tim Jansen, thanks for your expertise as usual. Thank you, Angenet. Ben Brown is free on bail right now. His trial is set for August, as I mentioned,

he has pleaded not guilty to that manslaughter charge that he faces. We'll keep an eye on this and let you know what happens. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanet Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.