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Commission candidate no stranger to disputes

Altercations with neighbors brought Ray Brooks a conviction in the mid '90s, a dropped charge in the early '90s.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published January 13, 2006

If elected to the Pinellas County Commission, Ray Brooks would have to decide disputes that pit neighbor against neighbor.

But in 1995, in a neighborhood dispute of his own, Brooks turned a hose on two boys who struck a car on his property with a ball, according to police.

The soaking led to a misdemeanor battery charge and Brooks' later conviction.

This week, the 55-year-old Brooks said the incident never happened. It was concocted as an act of revenge, he said, for frequently reporting neighborhood kids to police.

"They would block off the roads, get into fights out front," Brooks said. "They were just really a nuisance."

A Republican, Brooks hopes to unseat Commissioner Susan Latvala, who represents North Pinellas' District 4, in September's GOP primary. He's an advocate for people in mobile home parks who are being displaced by development.

At the time of the incident, Brooks lived on 21st Avenue in Largo. According to a police report, in December 1995 he soaked the boys. When one boy's father confronted Brooks, he turned the hose on him, too, then struck the man on the back of the head with the nozzle, the report states.

Brooks demanded and got a jury trial. He was found guilty and served probation until January 1998.

That was not his first encounter with police, according to court and police records.

In 1992, another Largo neighbor called police to report that Brooks had threatened her children and called them names.

An intoxicated Brooks refused to identify himself when police arrived and pulled away from an officer, the report states. He was charged with obstruction, but prosecutors chose not to prosecute.

Brooks said the incidents have no bearing on his qualifications for office.

For the past three years, Brooks, a St. Petersburg native, has lived at Anchor North Bay mobile home park, which overlooks Old Tampa Bay.

Brooks said he gets along well with his neighbors.

"They love me," he said. "I'm the association president. Everybody voted for me . . . because I do know the difference between right and wrong."

Latvala, Brooks' opponent, declined to comment.

Will Van Sant can be reached at 445-4166 or vansant@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 13, 2006, 01:45:18]