Breach of Trust

On Scripps-Howard's crusading Cleveland Press, Veteran (51) Forrest Allen enjoys an earned reputation as a tenacious, digging reporter who makes life uncomfortable for errant public officials. For five years, picking away at the probate-court administration in Cuyahoga County, Allen has often broken off bits of news, but he never seemed to hit probate pay dirt. Last February, after he got a tip from young (29) Courthouse Reporter Sam Giaimo, Allen and Giaimo began to dig deeper into the court. What they found provided the Press with frontpage headlines for weeks, scandalized Cleveland, and started a Bar Association investigation. Last week, as a direct result of the Allen-Giaimo stories, Probate Judge Nelson J. Brewer resigned from the bench and quit the practice of law for good. It was the first time that a Cleveland newspaper had forced a judge to resign.

Favors for a Few. Brewer, 69, a distinguished-looking and irascible ex-state legislator, had been the sole judge of the probate court in Cuyahoga County for 20 years, was three times reelected. It was Brewer's responsibility to appoint trustees and guardians to manage the funds of widows, orphans and insane persons, and to approve (or disapprove) their periodic accounts. The first thing that struck Reporters Allen and Giaimo as off-key was the judge's policy of doling out trusteeships; Judge Brewer limited them to a few lawyers, named one lawyer (who had previously been suspended for faulty accounting) to handle assets of $245,000 for 25 mentally ill persons. From this lawyer, the trail led to the judge himself. Before his elevation to the bench, Brewer had also been named as guardian or trustee in numerous cases. Reporters Giaimo and Allen decided to check up on how Brewer had discharged those trusts, dug into the dusty records of nearly 1,000 old probate cases, visited mental asylums, talked to scores of widows, orphans, lawyers. In one case, Brewer had been guardian of a World War I veteran for 23 years; in that time, Guardian Brewer got $1,250 in fees, the ward not one cent. In another case, in violation of Ohio law. Judge Brewer approved Guardian Brewer's final accounting--despite a 14-year-old, $918 discrepancy.

Services for the Dead. But it was the case of the late Thomas Wracan that really nailed Judge Brewer. For 17 years, reported Allen and Giaimo, Brewer had been acting as guardian of a dead man. For his mythical services, Brewer had paid himself $500 in fees and failed to turn over $359 more. In all, charged the Press, Brewer, instead of winding up his guardianships when he first became a judge, was still short in accounts by $6,300; with interest, that brought the amount Brewer owed to nearly $15,000.

Last week, pinned down between the Press and the Bar Association investigations of his conduct on and off the bench, the harassed judge made one more banner headline: BREWER QUITS BENCH AND BAR, WILL RESTORE $6,300 SHORTAGES. Reluctantly, Brewer admitted that he was unable after many years to "present records or recollect facts," concluded, "Clearly, I have been careless."

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