Exclusive: SEIU Local 1000 president used fake name in college, investigated for identity theft

The embattled president of California’s largest state employee union was investigated for identity theft in 2008 after he used the name and Social Security number of a minor to attend college in Arizona, according to police and court records.

SEIU Local 1000 president Richard Louis Brown, 52, faces an uncertain future at the organization representing 100,000 state employees after the union’s vice presidents suspended his presidency six weeks ago, setting up an internal hearing next week and ultimately a board vote that could decide whether he regains leadership powers.

Arizona State University Police Department reports obtained by The Sacramento Bee through a public records request help fill in another gap from a past that Brown has largely declined to discuss.

The Bee previously reported that Brown was convicted of a felony for carrying a concealed handgun in a St. Louis park in 1995, when he was 26. His wife, Theresa Brown, gave birth to their son in 1997. The couple separated in 1999 but remained married.

Theresa Brown said she tried to find her husband after the separation, but was told only that he had moved “out West.”

She divorced him in his absence in 2003. The judge in the divorce didn’t order any child support payments since Brown couldn’t be found, according to Missouri Circuit Court divorce records.

Identity theft investigation

The same year, at age 34, he enrolled at Arizona State University under someone else’s name, according to the university’s communications office and police records.

On June 29, 2007, months ahead of his planned graduation in the fall, Brown requested a name change with the university’s Office of the Registrar, according to an ASU Police Department report.

According to the report, the registrar’s office noticed there wasn’t any legal documentation related to the name change, and asked him about it. He told them he had been using an alias but wanted his diploma in his real name. The office forwarded the information to university police in early 2008, according to the report.

The name he had been using was attached to a Social Security number he had also used, according to the report. The university police launched an identity theft investigation.

Theresa Brown said last week that an ASU police investigator called her around that time to verify Richard Brown’s Social Security number. The investigator told her that her ex-husband was going by another name, Theresa Brown said.

University police discovered the personal information Richard Brown had been using belonged to a minor. They called the child’s parents, but couldn’t reach them, according to one of the reports.

Brown didn’t take out any loans under the alias. He received two scholarships totaling about $700, according to the report.

“It appears that (S) Richard Brown has been using the name (redacted) for some time to obtain employment and housing, however, no damages were done to the record of (redacted) through such transactions,” an officer wrote in the report.

Since Brown hadn’t done damage and a victim hadn’t come forward, officers didn’t charge Brown with any crimes, according to the report.

Brown graduated from Arizona State University in fall 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in finance, according to the university.

Theresa Brown said she believes her ex-husband used the alias to avoid paying child support, but she was surprised to learn he had used a minor’s identity.

“I’m just so taken aback by that,” she said. “I thought it would just be a name he had randomly picked.”

Brown did not respond to calls, a voicemail or a text asking about the police reports. He has said his past is irrelevant to his tenure as president of the union, which has an annual budget of about $47 million.

Richard Brown and union directors

Brown was elected to a three-year term in May of last year, following a contentious campaign against four other candidates. He blasted opponents while promising dues reductions, major pay and benefit increases and to eliminate the union’s traditional political advocacy functions.

He clashed with some members of the union’s 65-member Board of Directors from the start. He supported different candidates in a CalPERS election than the board had moved to support and held a rally with speakers who supported the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The board had taken action to support the Democratic governor.

Brown fired and replaced several employees, and at least two of them sued, saying the firings were improper. Afterward, board members accused Brown of mishandling the lawsuits, misspending union money and blocking the board from participating in running the union. The suits are still pending.

Brown has denied board members’ claims, accusing them of refusing to accept his election and acting to preserve the status quo at the organization. He has called them racist and “evil.”

He has continued making those claims on social media.

“A few misguided and misleading Local 1000 so called but truly lackadaisical and lackluster leaders are accurately displaying a strong resemblance to a well known political pathology readily recognizable as a disease of ‘conscious algorithm of avoidance of acceptance’ regarding Richard Louis Brown’s astounding victory as the third Local 1000 President in our Union’s unremarkable history,” Brown wrote in an April 6 Facebook post.

The union’s three vice presidents took action to suspend him at the end of February and changed the locks at the union’s 14th Street headquarters to keep him out. Brown and about 20 supporters gathered at the building for a protest on March 5, and one of them grabbed a door as it was swinging shut. The group entered the building, removed boxes of documents and occupied the building for several days.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Steven Gevercer issued a temporary restraining order ordering Brown to leave the building and stop exercising powers of the union presidency. On March 25, Gevercer extended the order through a preliminary injunction until the union’s internal suspension procedures could be completed.

Brown is scheduled for a hearing April 19 before Maryland-based mediator Homer La Rue, who will weigh internal complaints union members have filed against him. If La Rue decides a continued suspension is appropriate, or recommends something else, the board would vote on whether to accept his recommendation.

A two-thirds majority vote is required to adopt La Rue’s recommendation. Brown has supporters on the board, and it’s unclear if two-thirds would approve continued constraints on him.

Slim majorities of the union’s board have met twice and held votes to strip Brown of leadership powers. Brown has called the votes illegitimate, since they were taken at meetings he had not called.

Attendees of those meetings selected board member Bill Hall to fill a newly created position of board chair. As chairman, Hall shares leadership with the board under amended union policies.

This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.