Williamsport, Pennsylvania – A Pennsylvania State Police corporal has been charged after allegedly throwing his teenage daughter to the ground in a public business, holding her upside down by her ankles, and using a pair of kitchen tongs to retrieve a cell phone she had hidden in her pants.
Lycoming County detectives charged Corporal Jacob Brown-Schields, 40, on Monday with theft, receiving stolen property, disorderly conduct, and harassment.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the incident occurred on January 7, 2025, at a local business in Williamsport. Brown-Schields reportedly demanded his estranged daughter’s phone. When she refused and slipped the $700 device — a Christmas gift from her boyfriend — into the groin area of her pants, he allegedly tried reaching in with his hands. He then grabbed kitchen tongs, threw her to the ground, held her upside down by the ankles, and inserted the tongs down her pants to seize the phone.
The daughter told police she was bruised on her “private parts” from the tongs and felt humiliated by the public ordeal. More than a year later, authorities say Brown-Schields still has not returned the phone despite multiple attempts by the girl to retrieve it.
The theft and receiving stolen property charges are first-degree misdemeanors, while disorderly conduct and harassment are summary offenses. It remains unclear why charges were filed more than 13 months after the incident.
Brown-Schields has been with the Pennsylvania State Police since 2019 and is assigned to Troop H in Chambersburg. He earns an annual salary of $110,412. The department confirmed he has been suspended without pay pending the resolution of the criminal case.
The daughter, a juvenile who normally lives with her mother, had been temporarily staying with an aunt at the time. She had reportedly been trying to return to her mother’s home and had even contacted the Pennsylvania State Police — her father’s own agency — on the day of the incident seeking help with her living situation. She claimed she had gone to her father’s house at least three times to recover the phone, only to receive a “no trespassing” notice from him and his wife threatening police involvement if she returned.
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