Jury begins deliberations in Brooks' $190M fraud case

After six months of trial testimony, a federal jury late Monday began deliberating the fate of David Brooks, the former body-armor magnate charged in a $190-million fraud.

But the six-woman, six-man jury hearing the case in U.S. District Court in Central Islip only met for 30 minutes before breaking for the day. Much of the day before the jury deliberations started was taken up with U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert instructing jurors on the law to follow in reaching a verdict and with a federal prosecutor finishing the government's rebuttal to Brooks' defense.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Caffarone, acknowledged that there were no problems with the quality of the hundreds of thousands of vests that Brooks' former Westbury-based DHB Industries produced for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nor, Caffarone said, did anyone doubt that Brooks' co-defendant, Sandra Hatfield, DHB's former chief operating officer, was devoted to quickly turning out a quality product for the troops in the field.

But Brooks and Hatfield are charged with fraud totaling almost $200 million, Caffarone said.

"And now they have the audacity to come before you and talk about how they protect soldiers," he said. "Wrapping themselves in the American flag. There's only one American flag that Mr. Brooks cared about. This one. The one encrusted with diamonds, rubies and sapphires," Caffarone said, holding up the $101,000 jewel-covered buckle in the shape of an American flag that Brooks is accused of illegally buying with company money.

"And Ms. Hatfield stood by him at every step," Caffarone continued, holding up a picture of Brooks and Hatfield embracing at a party, with Brooks wearing the bejeweled buckle.

Brooks is charged with illegally spending $6 million of DHB money for personal expenses and making $185 million by manipulating DHB stock. Hatfield is accused of making $5 million through the stock scheme, as well as getting a $750,000 cash bonus and a Florida apartment worth $600,000.

Part of Brooks' defense has been that a key government witness against him, former DHB chief financial officer Dawn Schlegel, manufactured testimony against the defendants to earn a government plea deal and was responsible for much of the DHB financial activity that the government claims was illegal.

Earlier in his rebuttal argument, Caffarone said that testimony, contrary to the defense, showed that Brooks controlled almost everything at DHB, down to the expenditure of a few hundred dollars.

Caffarone noted that a retired four-star Army general, Larry Ellis, hired as president of DHB, had testified that he had to get approval from Brooks to give $200 to a Westbury-area charity.

Jury deliberations are expected to continue Tuesday.