Man Convicted of Bilking Saugus Widow Faces Sentencing Today

SAN FERNANDO —  There are those who say Edwin Seth Brown will get his deserved punishment when he is sentenced today to up to six years in state prison for bilking an 86-year-old Saugus widow out of more than $250,000.

Prosecutors and the victim’s family contend Brown charmed the money out of Olive Ruby, a Saugus widow, in a classic case of elder abuse. But others who know both contend all he did was accept gifts she freely gave him, and that he was convicted because he is gay and black.

Brown, 45, a former Castaic Town Council member and the community’s 1994 Man of the Year, was convicted last month of elder abuse for accepting Ruby’s money for personal use. He was acquitted on a misdemeanor count of grand theft.

The Ruby case was not Brown’s first brush with the law. Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to falsifying court documents after crediting two friends--sent to him to perform community service after unrelated convictions--with more hours of service than they had actually completed.

By all accounts Brown and Ruby developed a close relationship after they met about 1989. They shared a passion for volunteer work and Brown would often escort Ruby to functions, friends said. All parties agree that between May 1992 and April 1996, Brown accepted more than $250,000 from Ruby, spending some of it on luxuries such as a trip to Europe and a Picasso painting.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department began an investigation after one of Ruby’s granddaughters asked the Santa Clarita Senior Center to look into the situation. In a videotaped interview with sheriff’s detectives before she died in December, Ruby told investigators that she gave Brown the money as a personal gift.

But authorities said Ruby, who had suffered a stroke, was clearly mentally incapable of handling her money and that Brown pocketed cash she actually intended for one of the charities he works with.

His supporters say Brown was convicted largely because he is perceived with suspicion in a largely white, conservative community.

“The people in this community simply did not like the fact that a black man got granny’s money,” said Lewis Berti, Brown’s roommate and most vocal supporter. “The jury didn’t like that and they set out to fix the problem.”

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Law enforcement officials strongly deny Brown’s race or sexual orientation was a factor. Such criticism is “untrue and it’s unfair to the jurors who listened to the evidence very attentively throughout the trial,” said Deputy Dist. Atty Ardith Javan, who prosecuted the case.

Brown’s attorney, Robert Schwartz, said the fact that his client was unemployed and living off the generosity of Ruby was distasteful to jurors who “made up their minds independent of the evidence. . . . They felt like, ‘Why should this guy get all this?’ ”

Schwartz said he will ask Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen for a mistrial this morning on the grounds that the verdict was unsupported by the evidence.

Brown has been a leading figure in several northern Los Angeles County communities, doing charity work and assisting with various civic improvement efforts.

A one-time professional dancer, Brown served as director of the Samuel Dixon Family Health Center, which he also helped rescue from financial ruin. The low-cost clinic provides health care to much of the impoverished section of Val Verde, a town of nearly 2,000 residents about five miles northwest of Santa Clarita.

Dozens of supporters, many of them prominent Santa Clarita Valley residents who had worked with Brown on community service projects, testified in Brown’s behalf. Ruth Newhall, a former owner and editor of the Newhall Signal newspaper, said Ruby gave Brown the money so he could continue to devote himself to volunteer causes.

“This whole case is dreadful. It’s ridiculous. I knew Olive Ruby and she was very upset by the fact that they charged him,” Newhall said.

“He [Brown] did a great deal for Olive during her life and she told me he should be charged with ‘elder rescue, not elder abuse.’ ”

Javan said she will ask that Brown receive prison and be ordered to make restitution to Ruby’s heirs.

“I think originally Mr. Brown had a desire to be a community leader and certainly he had a lot to offer,” Javan said. “His lifestyle just wasn’t what he wanted it to be. It’s sad that he threw everything away.”