Brooks trial judge rules out sex video testimony

Some sex is now out, other sex is still in at David Brooks' trial.

A federal judge in Central Islip ruled Tuesday that she will order the jury to disregard testimony about Brooks' purchasing several thousand dollars worth of adult videos over online cable for his son.

But U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert also recently ruled she will continue to allow in other previous testimony about Brooks' using up to $9,000 at a time from his former Westbury body armor company, DHB Industries, to pay for prostitutes for himself, some employees and board members.

Seybert's rulings were in response to motions by Brooks' defense attorneys that the introduction of such "salacious" material was highly prejudicial. Brooks is accused of illegally getting DHB to pay for about $6 million in personal expenses and operating a stock scheme that made him $185 million.

In her opinion Tuesday, Seybert said that the pornographic videos were paid for out of several hundred thousand dollars in expenses that the company disclosed Brooks was entitled to in a 2004 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Though that money was supposedly to pay for Brooks' Florida home, Seybert said it was Brooks' money to spend however he wished.

In unsuccessfully asking for a mistrial for the government's overall use of "salacious" material, including the prostitutes allegation, Brooks' attorneys said in court papers, "If Mr. Brooks thought [prostitutes'] services could motivate his employees and make them more productive for the company [however offensive to investors that practice may have been], it is not evidence of looting for his own personal gain."

In response, prosecutors said that they had shown restraint in what they have introduced, including not mentioning how Brooks allegedly flew on his jet "with his multiple mistresses," his alleged use of illegal drugs and alleged "illegal doping of his racehorses." Brooks was one of the largest owners of trotting horses in North America.

Separately Tuesday, prosecutors said they had decided against calling one of Brooks' veterinarians to the stand. Dr. Seth Fishman was to have testified that Brooks asked him repeatedly if there was a pill that could wipe out the memory of Dawn Schlegel, his former chief financial officer and the chief government witness against him.