{"id":293796,"date":"2026-04-30T21:23:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293796\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T21:23:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:23:38","slug":"madera-supervisor-candidate-has-history-of-legal-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293796\/","title":{"rendered":"Madera supervisor candidate has history of legal troubles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public court records chronicle a history of legal troubles and a criminal conviction by a candidate running for a seat on the Madera County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

Charles \u201cBrook\u201d Allen, 48, was previously incarcerated for vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence in his early 20s and is currently a defendant in two court cases regarding his businesses, one of which involves a misdemeanor charge.<\/p>\n

In addition, a restraining order was placed on Allen by his ex-wife in 2008 amid a tumultuous, years-long divorce. She and their son, whom Allen eventually lost custody of, stayed in a shelter for domestic violence victims, according to divorce records.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Bee, Allen described his past as a series of painful failures and life lessons that shaped him. He said his checkered history shouldn\u2019t disqualify him from public office, but rather make him a more qualified candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, the only way to learn is misstep,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of missteps, surely, but every one I learned from and worked to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen is running in the June primary election for the District 5 seat that represents a sprawling portion of eastern Madera County, including Tesoro Viejo, Oakhurst, Coarsegold and other foothill communities. He has won an endorsement from the seat\u2019s former holder, Tom Wheeler.<\/p>\n

Allen has served as a trustee on the Yosemite Unified school board since 2022. His term is set to expire at the end of 2026. He said his priorities include improving roads and fire safety, and supporting small businesses and economic development.<\/p>\n

If elected, Allen said he aims to address the rising cost of living that has deterred young adults from the area. He said he would propose an ordinance similar to Mariposa County\u2019s newly adopted Title 25 building code to create more affordable housing. The code allows owners in certain rural areas to build homes that are not fully compliant with California Building Code standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegulations are meant to protect people\u2019s rights, but when those regulations start trampling upon people\u2019s rights, that\u2019s when we know we\u2019ve gone too far,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt has to be a balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also running in the District 5 race are Frank Bigelow, a former supervisor and state assemblyman, Melanie \u201cMel\u201d Barker, a Navy veteran and local business owner, and Mark Reed, a small businessman and rancher.<\/p>\n

\"Brook Brook Allen pulls signs out of the back of his vehicle following an interview about his campaign to run for District 5 Supervisor in Madera County on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com Allen arrested for vehicular manslaughter at age 21<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s criminal record dates back to 2000, when he veered off a road in Alpine County near the Nevada border while driving under the influence, striking a woman who was standing next to her vehicle, according to California Highway Patrol. The victim, Frances Brooks, a 61-year-old retired school teacher, later died at a nearby hospital.<\/p>\n

Allen was 21 years old at the time of the crash. He said he broke his pelvis, and two passengers in Allen\u2019s vehicle reportedly suffered minor injuries, the Reno Gazette Journal reported in a 2000 article.<\/p>\n

The Alpine County District Attorney\u2019s Office charged Allen with second-degree murder, felony driving under the influence and causing bodily injury and felony driving under the influence with a blood alcohol level of .08% or higher.<\/p>\n

Allen entered a no-contest plea to a four-year sentence and spent 30 months incarcerated at the Jamestown and Miramonte fire camps. The minimum-security facilities are operated jointly by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Cal Fire to train inmates who work on fire crews supporting emergency responses.<\/p>\n

After Allen got out of fire camp, he didn\u2019t feel as though his debt had been paid, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Francis Brooks was a retired school teacher with no children of her own, so I thought it\u2019d be fitting to somehow continue her legacy and education,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

He began mentoring students at his auto shop. He said that once a relationship was built with the kids, they would often ask him questions about his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke truth of my foolishness, because I truly believe it was important to help somebody else avoid the same mistake I made,\u201d he said. \u201cThe advice was, before you do something foolish, just five more seconds of thought could go a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s ex-wife and son stayed in shelter for domestic violence victims<\/p>\n

Allen was involved in a years-long divorce with his ex-wife, Dianna Del Bianco, who accused Allen of emotional and verbal abuse in divorce court records filed in Madera County Superior Court.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Del Bianco and Allen\u2019s young son stayed at a shelter for domestic violence victims in Stanislaus County. During their stay, Del Bianco acquired a restraining order against Allen, who was 30 at the time, that remained in effect for five years.<\/p>\n

According to divorce files obtained by The Bee, Del Bianco described incidents in which Allen yelled and cursed at her in front of their 2-year-old son.<\/p>\n

Allen had become increasingly more verbally and emotionally abusive throughout their relationship and had pushed her, Del Bianco said in the letter.<\/p>\n

Del Bianco accused Allen in her letter of taking away her car keys and cell phone when mad and threatening to take their son away if she were to ever leave him. Del Bianco wrote that Allen did not allow her access to their bank account and was extremely controlling of household money, which was also noted in records by the family\u2019s therapist.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharles gets in my face and yells at me,\u201d Del Bianco said in the letter. \u201cCharles tells me that if I listened to him, he wouldn\u2019t have to get mad at me. Charles calls me names like \u2018f—— b—-,\u2019 and \u2018worthless piece of s—.\u2019 Charles throws things while he is yelling at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attached to Del Bianco\u2019s request for the restraining order was a letter from their family therapist, Vincent DeFrank, expressing concern for the safety of Del Bianco and her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past several months the sessions that involved Mr. Allen were disruptive as a result of Mr. Allen severe temper outbursts which resulted in Mr. Allen storming from the office,\u201d DeFrank said in the letter.<\/p>\n

The divorce files included a different letter from the director of the Madera County Behavioral Clinic, dated shortly after Del Bianco was admitted to the Stanislaus shelter.<\/p>\n

It said that staff worked to relocate Del Bianco to a shelter outside of Madera County after it became clear through therapy sessions that it was \u201cimperative\u201d for the safety of her and her son that their location be undisclosed, \u201cdue to the escalating danger level for you and your child, posed by your husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

Del Bianco declined to comment on her and Allen\u2019s divorce.<\/p>\n

\"A A sign for Madera County Board of Supervisors candidate Charles Brook Allen, who is running for the District 5 seat, stands on Highway 41 near Coarsegold in Madera County on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com <\/p>\n

Court records show, and Allen confirmed, that he and Del Bianco lived together again for a few years after her stay in the shelter before the divorce was finalized.<\/p>\n

Allen acknowledged that he made some poor decisions in his relationship with Del Bianco, but insisted that it never became physical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen have tons and tons and tons of rights,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThey just have to say something, and then I have zero rights, and it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the divorce was officially finalized in 2012, Allen said he stayed at a friend\u2019s place, where he remained angry about the situation.<\/p>\n

He remembers clearly when the friend\u2019s wife leaned over and whispered in his ear: \u201cBeing angry and mad is like you taking poison and expecting it to hurt somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the moment that I claim to finally become a grown adult man,\u201d he said. \u201cI was 36, and you know, it\u2019s amazing what releasing all of that anger does for you, how you can refocus and really start to do good things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen said he has not seen his son, who is now in his early 20s, in about two years.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s businesses face legal scrutiny<\/p>\n

On top of being a school board trustee, Allen is the long-time owner of two businesses: Lepley Trees, a tree service company, and The Rusty Piston, an auto repair shop.<\/p>\n

Previously, the two companies operated as separate entities under Rusty Piston Inc., which was suspended by the California Franchise Tax Board in 2021 for failure to file and pay.<\/p>\n

Lepley Trees was subcontracting for another large tree company before the latter backed out of the deal without paying Lepley Trees for eight months of work, Allen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe scratched up the money to make payroll, but only payroll for the guys, not payroll taxes,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt\u2019s a twisted deal, because even though we didn\u2019t get paid, we still got a (payroll taxes) bill. And that was the dark cloud that was hung over our heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of mid-April 2026, the total balance due for Rusty Piston Inc. was $17,548, according to Andrew LePage, a spokesperson for the Franchise Tax Board.<\/p>\n

The suspension led Allen to form separate LLCs for the tree and mechanic businesses with an employee 10% ownership structure across the two companies. So, everyone involved receives a K-1 tax form, which differs from the W2 forms received by regular salaried employees.<\/p>\n

However, the Rusty Piston and Lepley Trees were not officially filed as separate LLCs until 2025. Allen said he had been working with about seven employees at each business under a verbal agreement regarding the employee ownership structure until the paperwork was finalized in January 2025.<\/p>\n

Allen is currently a defendant in a misdemeanor Madera County Criminal Court case for failure to maintain Workman\u2019s Comp Insurance on his businesses. Allen said the case was triggered by an \u201cunhappy ex-employee.\u201d He is filing a motion to dismiss the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing because work comp in the tree world is really expensive,\u201d Allen said of the 10% employee ownership structure. \u201cSo now we can afford to pay our guys a lot better, so they\u2019re making way better money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen is also a defendant in a Madera County Civil Court lawsuit where Lepley Trees is accused of taking down a tree on a property without informed consent. Allen denied the claim and said multiple witnesses can testify the plaintiff wanted the tree taken down.<\/p>\n

When asked how he wanted to address his past to voters, Allen quoted Thomas Edison: \u201cSuccess is nothing but a whole string of failures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen said he worked hard to overcome challenging life experiences and credits his past for shaping him. He grew up in a financially strained household, raised by a single mother, and said he is familiar with the needs of the communities he seeks to represent on the Madera County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what makes me special, I have the wisdom and knowledge of many of the people from up there,\u201d Allen said as tears welled in his eyes. \u201cA representative of the people needs to be among the people to be able to make the best decisions for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 6:30 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public court records chronicle a history of legal troubles and a criminal conviction by a candidate running for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-293796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}