Defense rests in Brooks' trial

On the 80th day, the defense, and prosecution, rested - in the David Brooks case.

The trial, in which testimony ended yesterday, has often taken bizarre turns, with testimony detailing Brooks' personal lifestyle, including his $101,000 jewel-encrusted belt-buckle and allegations that he had his body-armor company pay for prostitutes for himself and some associates.

Brooks, the former head of then Westbury-based DHB Industries, is charged in a 17-count indictment essentially with looting his company of $6 million to support an over-the-top lifestyle, pocketing another $185 million through a pump-and-dump stock scheme, and then forging documents to supposedly justify his actions.

The indictment includes conspiracy, securities, mail and wire fraud charges, and alleges obstruction of justice and misstatements to auditors.

Defense attorneys maintain Brooks was entitled to have the company pay for his personal expenses and that company documents to that effect are genuine, and that there was no manipulation of the company's books to run up DHB's stock price before Brooks and co-defendant Sandra Hatfield sold much of their holdings.

Hatfield, DHB's former chief operating officer, was once the highest-paid female executive on Long Island. She faces charges similar to Brooks' and is accused of getting about $5 million through the allegedly fraudulent stock scheme.

There has been no suggestion during the trial, which started in January at the U.S. District Court in Central Islip, that any of the body armor the company produced for members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is in any way defective. On the contrary, there has been much testimony about Hatfield's almost fanatical devotion to rapidly producing quality body-armor for the troops.

In all, federal prosecutors put 46 witnesses on the stand; Brooks' defense produced 15 witnesses and Hatfield's 11.

The key government witness, Dawn Schlegel, DHB's former chief financial officer, spent 23 days on the stand being questioned by the prosecution and defense.

Despite all the witnesses that testified, several potential witnesses never took the stand.

Even if he is acquitted, Brooks, who has been held without bail for allegedly lying about overseas assets, still faces two more federal trials, one of which involves contempt for declining to reveal the source of an e-mail that allegedly dealt with Schlegel's sex life. Brooks also faces a federal trial for income tax evasion.

Neither of Brooks' main defense attorneys - Kenneth Ravenell, Richard Levitt or Larry Shtasel - would comment Tuesday. Nor would Hatfield's attorneys, Roland Riopelle and Maurice Sercarz, or federal prosecutors Richard Lunger and Christopher Caffarone.