CHUBBUCK — A 45-year-old local man is facing sex crime charges after police say he persuaded two teenage girls to participate in a swimsuit photoshoot during which he touched them inappropriately.

Brandon Rex Brown, of Chubbuck, has been charged with sexual exploitation of a child and sexual battery of a minor child, both felonies, as well as one count of misdemeanor sexual battery following the Thursday incident.

Chubbuck police began investigating the incident after the mother of one of the teenage girls reported the incident, according to police and court records the Idaho State Journal recently obtained.

Police interviewed the girls, one of whom was age 17 and the other was age 18 at the time of the incident, police said.

The girls told police that the incident began to unfold around 5:15 p.m. while they were both working at a shop inside the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck when a man, later identified as Brown, approached them and asked if they would be interested in modeling swimsuits for him, according to the report. Brown told them that he invented color-changing swimsuits called “chameleon swimwear.”

Brown allegedly texted them codes to obtain free sets of the swimwear and said he would be interested in conducting a photoshoot the following week, police said.

Around 7 p.m., Brown returned to the shop and asked the girls if they would be interested in participating in the photoshoot right now and they both obliged, following him to a storefront Brown owned that is also located inside the mall, according to the police report.

Initially, Brown wanted the girls to change into their swimsuits in a room with a large window but both of the girls were not comfortable with that so they changed in a separate room, police said.

After changing into the swimsuits, Brown began taking photographs of the girls, during which he touched the girls inappropriately while adjusting the bottoms of the swimsuits, according to the report.

The girls also reported that Brown untied the tops of the swimsuits, causing the girls to become partially nude, police said. Brown was taking photos of the girls from an overhead angle while the girls were partially nude and told them that if any of the photographs captured their nude bodies he would delete them immediately, according to the report.

Brown also allegedly touched one of the girls’ breasts while she was partially nude, police said.

The girls would both become so uncomfortable that they requested to end the photoshoot and Brown reluctantly agreed before offering to give them a ride home in his Maserati, said police, adding that both girls declined the ride and left the mall in their own vehicles.

The 18-year-old girl told police that she captured a video of the incident with Brown and provided it to police, according to the report.

Officers were unable to determine if Brown was actually connected to a chameleon swimwear company, police said.

Officers then went to make contact with Brown at his home in Chubbuck around 2 a.m. and arrived to see him placing items on a shelf in his garage, according to the report.

Brown told officers that “there was no touching” when he was made aware of the criminal charges he was accused of but was subsequently taken into custody and transported to the Bannock County Jail in Pocatello, police said.

Officers also received permission from Brown’s wife while at the home to search the garage and located his cell phone on the shelf he was moving items to, indicating in the police report that they believed he was attempting to hide the device, according to the report.

Officers also executed a search warrant and Brown’s business inside the Pine Ridge Mall, seizing a laptop that he used to show the two girls pictures of others he said were models of the swimwear, the report says. Officers believed the photos could be of other victims, police said.

Brown appeared in front of 6th District Magistrate Judge Scott Axline for an arraignment hearing on Friday, during which his bond was set at $75,000.

He posted the bond on Monday and was released on his own recognizance. No-contact orders were issued between him and the two victims.

Brown is set to appear back in court on Feb. 6 for a preliminary hearing that will involve prosecutors attempting to prove there is enough evidence to elevate his case from the magistrate to district court level for trial.

If convicted of the two felony charges filed against him, Brown faces up to 55 years in prison and a fine of up to $200,000.