District attorney candidate Bob Brewer made a campaign stop in Coronado last Thursday, at the home of Tamara and Jim Pokorny. For Brewer and his wife Irma Gonzalez, it was a homecoming of sorts; the couple lived here from 1991 to 1998.
The event gave the Brewer and Gonzalez an opportunity to connect with old friends, make some new ones, and to explain why at an age when many people are working improving their golf swing, he was vying to become the county’s chief prosecutor.
Bonnie Dumanis’ campaign for mayor was “the tipping point,” the 66-year old attorney said. “She crossed the line and became a politician.”
He has pledged to keep the district attorney’s office above politics by never running for another office or endorsing another candidate. “It creates a conflict of interest, something no lawyer should have,” he said.
Indeed, under Dumanis, the San Diego District Attorney’s office had to turn over the prosecution of former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner to the State Attorney General, because Dumanis ran against him for mayor and was seen as having a conflict of interest.
Her support in this campaign is coming mainly from political world. Nearly every politician in the county, including Coronado Mayor Casey Tanaka, has endorsed her.
Brewer has the support of law enforcement. Police officers throughout the county, including the Coronado Police Officers Association, have endorsed him. Organizations representing probation officers, deputy city attorneys, sheriff’s deputies, and court employees are backing him as well.
Bob Brewer, left, and Jim Pokorny
Brewer also wanted to end his legal career in public service where it began.
After graduating from the University of San Diego Law School, the former Army ranger and Silver Star recipient moved to Los Angeles where he served as a deputy district attorney and later as an assistant US attorney. As a prosecutor, he tried over 80 criminal cases, including an espionage case that was featured on 60 Minutes. The case focused on Marion Zacharski, a Polish national who worked a Hughes Air Craft, who was convicted of passing top-secret information to Polish intelligence and the KGB, including plans for what became the Stealth bomber.
Brewer returned to San Diego seven years later and went into private practice as a defense attorney specializing in civil litigation and white-collar crime at McKenna and Cuneo, where he was a managing partner and oversaw 28 lawyers.
Brewer’s wife, retired judge Irma Gonzalez, center, with friends Jim Pokorny and Susan Schelkun
While Brewer has spent his career prosecuting and defending criminals, he also emphathized with their victims. He too was a crime victim. In the late 1990’s, his house on Pomona was ransacked and burglarized. While the perpetrator was apprehended, his wife Irma never felt comfortable in the house afterwards.
The couple now lives in Del Mar, but misses Coronado. The best part Brewer says was “being able to walk uptown in the morning and have breakfast with my friends.”
Many of those friends from Coronado are working hard to elect him district attorney.
“He’s the only lawyer, I trust,” said Steve Schelkun, a retired orthopedic surgeon, who was Brewer’s next-door neighbor. “Bob is an all around guy – smart, loyal and funny,” Schelkun’s wife, Susan, added.
——
Gloria Tierney
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
Contact us with your Coronado story ideas.