Lisa Marie Brokaw
VENTURA COUNTY – The fact that wedding vows don’t commonly include the admonition found in The Ten Commandments reminding us not to take things that don’t belong to us may have helped a divorced Ojai woman to ignore the reality that taking the property of her ex-husband is a genuinely felonious act that usually earns a free ride to County Jail.
Such appears to be the case, as supported by the facts leading to the May 19th arrest of Lisa Marie Brokaw, a resident of Ventura, pursuant to the report made by her husband that someone had burglarized his home on May 16th and made off with property described by Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Hollowell as “an answering machine and a newly purchased 1.40 carat diamond ring with a price of $5,397.00.”
The initial investigation focused directly on Brokaw as the prime suspect, but her stonewalling of the interrogation failed to convince anyone of her innocence and led to an extended period of surveillance of her residence and activities. Pursuant to that detective work, she was once again contacted by the cops and finally confessed to the burglary, even leading detectives to the Ojai location where she had hid her purloined booty. Ultimately, the stolen diamond ring and the answering machine—no doubt a valuable relic of the 1970s in the age of smart phones and ubiquitous voicemail—were recovered and returned to Brokaw’s ex-husband.
Brokaw was arrested on May 19th and transported to Ventura County Jail, where she posed for what appears to have been a contender for the “most embarrassed mugshot” award and was booked on a charge of residential burglary, with her bail set at $50,000.
