While a medical examiner’s report is still pending, some more details have emerged about the case of Mitch Brooks, the former National Plasterers Council executive director who likely committed suicide just before his scheduled sentencing for embezzling funds from the NPC.
Brooks was arrested in 2016, charged with taking up to $1.5 million above the fees agreed upon by his association management firm, Port Charlotte, Fla.-based Visioneering Consultants, and the NPC. After pleading no contest to some charges, he was due to be sentenced on Sept. 28. After he failed to appear in court, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Police found his body as they went to apprehend him at his home.
A medical examiners report has not been released, however the State Attorneys office confirmed that it appeared to be suicide.
J.D. Miller, the assistant state attorney working on the case, shared some of the information his team found when developing its case. His office’s forensic accountants believed they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Brooks had taken approximately $600,000, not the $1.5 million that had been alleged.
“The issue is there’s a contract, and that contract is open to some level of interpretation,” Miller said. “The state has to prove cases beyond a reasonable doubt, so if [something is] open to interpretation … then we can’t use it.”
Before his scheduled sentencing, Brooks was ordered to pay $680,000 in restitution, Miller said. His office had recommended a five-year sentence followed by 25 years probation, but it isn’t known what the judge planned to impose.
Brooks had served about 15 months in prison after his arrest. During that time, he provided information that assisted the district attorney in a homicide case against a fellow inmate. While that would have been considered in his sentencing, Miller said, there was no agreement in exchange for the information.
“I’m just sad that it ended this way,” Miller said.
