By STEFANIE COHEN
Posted: 4:23 am
October 12, 2008
A war profiteer who allegedly looted his body-armor company to fund a posh lifestyle has gone through a Who's Who of pricey defense lawyers - suing some, firing some, and driving others away with his temper, sources say.
David Brooks, 54, who famously blew $8 million on his daughter's 2005 bat mitzvah, was arrested two years later for pumping up his company's stock and then dumping shares to the tune of $185 million.
Feds say he sold his shares because he learned the bullet-proof vests his firm, DHB Industries, supplied to US armed forces were about to be recalled.
But in the last two years, Brooks, who is under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment while awaiting a trial set to begin next April, has gone through at least a half-dozen defense attorneys - including hot-shot litigator Gerald Shargel, former federal prosecutor Paul Schectman, and former New Jersey Federal Judge Herbert Stern.
Sources say he throws world-class tempter tantrums, causing dedicated lawyers to call it quits if they don't get booted first.
One lawyer whom Brooks sued claimed Brooks once took off after him, shouting: "You aren't going to leave this city alive!"
The wild man allegedly chased the lawyer back to his apartment, grabbed a cord and began whipping it at him and his wife.
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