Brooks seeks to block witness in fraud case

David Brooks is fighting to block the testimony of a veterinarian who claims Brooks asked the horse doctor if he knew of a drug that could wipe out the memory of the chief government witness against him.

According to court papers filed recently by a federal prosecutor, veterinarian Dr. Seth Fishman of Florida has told federal prosecutors that several years ago Brooks "asked me if I knew of any way to erase Dawn Schlegel's memory."

Schlegel, who was chief financial officer of Brooks' former Westbury-based body-armor company, DHB Industries, is the main government witness against Brooks, who is on trial on charges of looting the company of millions of dollars.

Brooks' lead attorney, Kenneth Ravenell, said in the court papers that Fishman, although not a lawyer, is covered by a Kovel agreement, which bars non-lawyers who act as agents for attorneys from testifying about their conversations with defendants.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Caffarone said a veterinarian, acting as Fishman did, could not be covered by such an agreement.

Ravenell did not go into the veracity of Fishman's assertions in court papers, and he declined to comment Wednesday.

Schlegel ended 23 days of testimony last week at Brooks' trial in federal District Court in Central Islip. In addition to heading the company that produced body armor for the U.S. military, Brooks also owned one of the largest stables of harness-racing horses in North America.

Fishman said Brooks told him "over the years" a number of other things that sharply contradict Brooks' defense, according to an affidavit from Fishman filed by Caffarone.

Among them: that Brooks told Fishman he controlled a Tennessee company, TAP; that Brooks "was exploring ways to hide his assets from the United States government"; that Brooks was in possession of Schlegel's computer and that Fishman fabricated reasons for Brooks to be in Las Vegas on business trips.

Federal prosecutors have said the Las Vegas trips were for personal reasons and that Brooks secretly ran TAP - ostensibly an independent company that manufactured body-armor vests and was owned by his former wife, Terry -- as a way to illegally funnel millions of dollars from DHB into his harness-racing ventures.

Brooks' bail was revoked and he was jailed after FBI agents said he concealed several million dollars overseas. In addition, Brooks has been held in contempt of court for refusing to divulge the history of an e-mail that prosecutors said was forged in an attempt to discredit Schlegel. Schlegel testified that Brooks was the last person to have her computer.

U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert has yet to decide whether to allow Fishman to testify.