A candidate for the Madera County Board of Supervisors is facing scrutiny over a 25-year history that includes a criminal conviction, a restraining order and ongoing legal disputes tied to his businesses. Charles \u201cBrook\u201d Allen says his past missteps have shaped him into a stronger candidate.<\/p>\n
FULL STORY: Madera supervisor candidate has history of criminal, legal troubles spanning 25 years<\/a><\/p>\n Here are key takeaways<\/p>\n \u2022 The race: Allen, 48, is running in the June primary for the District 5 seat representing eastern Madera County, including Tesoro Viejo, Oakhurst and Coarsegold. He has served on the Yosemite Unified school board since 2022 and was endorsed by former Madera County Supervisor Tom Wheeler.<\/p>\n \u2022 2000 vehicular manslaughter: At 21, Allen was driving under the influence in Alpine County near the Nevada border when he struck Frances Brooks, a 61-year-old retired schoolteacher, who later died at a nearby hospital. He pleaded no contest, served 30 months at the Jamestown and Miramonte fire camps and later began mentoring students at his auto shop to honor Brooks\u2019 work in education, he told The Fresno Bee.<\/p>\n \u2022 Restraining order and divorce: Allen\u2019s ex-wife, Dianna Del Bianco, obtained a five-year restraining order in 2008 and stayed at a domestic violence shelter with their young son. Court records include accusations of verbal and emotional abuse, controlling behavior and one alleged push. Allen acknowledged poor decisions but said the arguments never became physical.<\/p>\n \u2022 Custody and family: Allen eventually lost custody of his son and said he has not seen him, now in his early 20s, in about two years.<\/p>\n \u2022 Business legal issues: Allen owns Lepley Trees and The Rusty Piston auto shop. Their former parent company, Rusty Piston Inc., was suspended by the California Franchise Tax Board in 2021, with $17,548 owed as of mid-April 2026.<\/p>\n \u2022 Active cases: Allen is a defendant in a misdemeanor case for failing to maintain workers\u2019 compensation insurance, which he attributes to an \u201cunhappy ex-employee\u201d and is moving to dismiss. He also faces a civil lawsuit alleging Lepley Trees removed a tree without consent, which he denies.<\/p>\n \u2022 His response: Allen quoted Thomas Edison \u2014 \u201cSuccess is nothing but a whole string of failures\u201d \u2014 and said his experiences make him a more qualified candidate. \u201cA representative of the people needs to be among the people to be able to make the best decisions for the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2022 Other candidates: Also in the District 5 race are former supervisor and assemblyman Frank Bigelow, Navy veteran and business owner Melanie \u201cMel\u201d Barker, and small businessman and rancher Mark Reed.<\/p>\n This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy.<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 2:17 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A candidate for the Madera County Board of Supervisors is facing scrutiny over a 25-year history that includes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-295118","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\/295118","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=295118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}