PROSECUTION ASSAILS MAN IN ELDER FRAUD.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The prosecution characterized Edwin Seth Brown as a freeloader who accepted large sums of money from an elderly Saugus widow, even as she lived modestly, during cross-examination Monday in criminal court.

Brown, 45, is being tried on felony allegations of grand theft and elder financial abuse. The trial, in North Valley Superior Court, began Jan. 28 and is expected to go to the nine-man, three-woman jury this week.

During often curt exchanges with Deputy District Attorney Ardith Javan, Brown repeatedly described the late Olive Ruby as his ``good friend'' while the prosecutor portrayed the defendant as someone who took advantage of a woman who had suffered a stroke. Ruby died in December at age 86 after a six-week stay in the hospital.

During several hours of questioning, Javan grilled Brown on expenses he entailed during the years he and Ruby were acquainted. Among the bills that Ruby - the 1983 Santa Clarita Valley Woman of the Year - paid for Brown were those for a pair of European vacations, a car purchase and electrolysis treatments to correct problems he had with ingrown hairs, sebaceous cysts and folliculitis, he testified.

Ruby also financed trips to New York, the Caribbean and Seattle, bought $25,000 worth of furniture for Brown's home and paid for his wardrobe purchases at upscale stores such as Neiman-Marcus, Barney's New York and Macy's.

``When she was supporting you, did you do anything to cut back on your expenses so you wouldn't be a undue drain on Olive Ruby?'' Javan asked him.

Brown, the executive director of the Samuel Dixon Family Health Center in Val Verde, is the last of about 30 witnesses to take the stand. His testimony began Friday before defense attorney Robert Schwartz.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the District Attorney's Office allege that Brown defrauded Ruby, who was a member of the health center's board of directors, out of her $258,000 life savings. The two met in 1989, and the payments from her to the defendant took place between 1991 and 1996.

The defense maintains that the money was a gift to Brown from Ruby, whose assets were put under a conservatorship in 1997 by the Los Angeles County Public Guardian's Office. Sheriff's detectives asserted that Ruby lacked the capacity to make decisions about her finances because her faculties had been diminished.

Javan repeatedly questioned Brown - a California Institute of the Arts alumnus who once was a dancer - about why he allowed Ruby to bankroll his living expenses, rather than find a salaried position that would enable him to pay his bills himself.

Javan also questioned whether Brown paid any of his tuition expenses while in college, or whether he had financed his studies through the patronage of others.

``Ma'am, I had no money to `cough up,' '' Brown answered, repeating the prosecutor's phrase. ``My mother was a domestic worker. My father was a steelworker. I did my best to make something wonderful of my life,'' he added.