Dr. Ben Brown, charged with wife's death, is out of jail. Why the arrest took months.

Gulf Breeze plastic surgeon Ben Brown is out of jail on $50,000 bond after spending several hours behind bars on Monday at the Santa Rosa County Jail charged with the death of his wife, Hillary Brown.

The 41-year-old doctor was arrested for second degree felony homicide: manslaughter by culpable negligence.

Authorities spent the last seven months investigating the plastic surgeon who they say did not have adequate life-saving equipment on hand and failed to immediately call 911 when his wife went into cardiac arrest last November while he was performing several procedures on her in his Tiger Point area office, Restore Plastic Surgery.

The sheriff said these are just a few of the “discrepancies” deputies discovered during their investigation of Brown’s handling of his wife’s collapse that led to the charge. The 33-year-old mother of three was eventually taken to the hospital after she became unresponsive but was taken off life support a week later because her brain had gone without oxygen for too long.

“A lot of different facets had to come together before we applied for a warrant,” Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson said. “As soon as (Hillary Brown’s) toxicology tests came back and we got all the information we needed, we gave it to the State Attorney's Office. They saw probable cause for a manslaughter charge, signed the warrant, and then we sent it over to a judge who also saw there was probable cause and signed the warrant and then (Brown) turned himself in.”

According to the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office arrest report, the medical examiner found Hillary Brown died due to "complications following lidocaine toxicity." Deputies say their investigation also found Hillary had medical trouble previously when Brown previously performed a procedure on her.

"Brown showed a history of allowing unsafe practices to occur and took no precautions for the well being of human life, even after an incident where he could not wake the victim during a procedure in January of 2023," the report reads.

Brown did not return a call for comment about his arrest. Previously, a crisis management public relations team issued statements on Brown’s behalf saying he denied accusations of wrongdoing.

Although the arrest warrant was signed Friday, Johnson said Brown was allowed to turn himself in Monday morning because ne was not considered to be a flight risk considering his ties to the community. The judge agreed when Brown had his first court appearance at the Santa Rosa County Court House via jail video Monday afternoon.

“I'm not going to order the GPS or the pretrial reporting at this point due to his ties to the community and his complete lack of criminal history,” said County Judge Robert Hilliard, who set bond at $50,000.

Brown posted bail the same afternoon.

State prosecutors agreed to the bond but asked the judge to place the plastic surgeon on pre-trial release and have him fitted with a GPS monitor. However, Brown’s attorney argued he wasn’t going anywhere, in part because the doctor is fighting mounting legal problems.

“Dr. Brown has resided here since 2015,” said criminal defense attorney Jason Cromey. “He owns a home. He's not licensed to practice in any other state in the country. There are ongoing issues with the DOH (Florida Deptartment of Health) related to his medical license. He's hired counsel. They're challenging that case as well. He's hired attorneys here on this one. There's no indication that he's going anywhere. He's got no prior criminal history, no prior failures to appear, so I don't see a need to have it monitored.”

The Florida Department of Health is investigating Brown for mistreatment of patients and the death of his wife. The health department issued an emergency order last month restricting Brown’s medical license so that he can only practice in a state licensed facility under the supervision of a state licensed doctor.

Related: Gulf Breeze plastic surgeon Ben Brown arrested, charged with death of wife, Hillary Brown

The surgeon general is also asking the Florida Board of Medicine to penalize Brown for violating several state statutes related to accusations of botched patient surgeries and for the death of his wife, including not immediately calling for help or having life-saving equipment nearby when her heart stopped.

The results of Hillary Brown’s autopsy and toxicology tests are complete, but the State Attorney’s office is not yet releasing them because the investigation is ongoing.

Johnson said the wait for Hillary Brown’s toxicology test results and the complexity of investigating a medical related death are the reasons it took this long for Brown’s arrest. They worked with other medical professionals, including three employees in the building when Brown was performing procedures on Hillary in November, to sort out what was done in accordance with the law and what wasn’t.

“The wait was agonizing for us, so I can't imagine what it's like for the family members,” Johnson said. “My detectives worked with the department of health and the medical examiner's office closely in this case because this is not something we normally do. Since I was elected sheriff in 2016, this is the first case we've had of a doctor.”

The case has drawn the attention of local legislators including Florida Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Pensacola, who is chair of the House of Representatives healthcare regulation subcommittee. She is working to addresses loopholes in state law that she says make it harder for patients to hold doctors accountable for medical malpractice, like arbitration agreements and minimal insurance coverage for medical malpractice.

She also wants to look at other possible legal changes that could help make it easier for detectives investigating medical related crimes.

“We don't want to make everybody wait months and months to be able to find and access the information law enforcement needs where they can request a warrant for an arrest,” said Salzman. “If there's any ambiguity in the law that is pertinent to this case, how can we change that at the state level? Because what's happening here in Pensacola is happening across the state. Law enforcement, victims and families are waiting and waiting for some sort of resolution.”

Brown’s next court date is scheduled for July 11 at 9 a.m. at the Santa Rosa County Courthouse.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Dr. Ben Brown plastic surgeon case "complex," took months