Update on Corey Bruins’ Criminal Fraud Case — Preliminary Hearing Set for January 26

The Rag has an update on the Corey Bruins’ criminal fraud case stemming from allegations against him that he stole thousands of dollars of funds from the then-OB Town Council.

A Rag reporter attended his readiness conference just recently. During that brief conference, the parties agreed that the preliminary hearing scheduled for January 26th in the New Year will go as scheduled — unless a plea is reached before then.

Preliminary hearings — or “prelims” — are part of the process in which any felony is charged. It gives the prosecution a chance to place sufficient evidence before a judge in order for the case to proceed. It also causes much of the evidence to be brought out into the light of day, before the public as it were.

Our reporter spoke to Bruins and his attorney outside court. Bruins told our reporter that he had nothing to say. Our reporter did say Bruins “looked healthy.”

His lawyer, Earl Potts, said nothing happened at the readiness conference other than an agreement between the parties that the case would proceed to the prelim. Potts gave the reporter no indication that a plea deal is in the works or when it might happen — he just said the usual response that anything is possible.

The reporter’s sense is that because the prelim was not delayed again, there will either be a settlement or a preliminary exam at which the evidence will be public, on Jan 26.

The case against Bruins is very much alive and well with a possible resolution in the coming weeks in terms of a plea deal or a hearing in January where we’ll learn much more about the case prosecutors have built against Bruins.

The Bruins case was so devastating to the OB Town Council that they were advised to fold the organization up and not use the name of OBTC again. This is what the then members of the board did — they dusted off the name “OB Community Foundation” which had been formed years earlier for fundraising and are currently using that for all their activities now. And since then, all members of the board have resigned and held an election in which a whole new slate of OBceans took over and now run it.

Here’s a quote from one of our earlier posts:

Corey Bruins, the former president of the Ocean Beach Town Council, currently faces 9 felonies.

These include one count of fraudulent appropriation by agent, with an aggravated white collar crime enhancement, one count of grand theft, six counts of use personal identifying information of another, and one count of money laundering also with an aggravated white collar crime enhancement.

Bruins was arraigned on March 28 and pleaded not guilty. He was ordered by the court to stay away from Shelly Parks, Jenny Brengelman, and Stephanie Kane — either current or former members of the OBTC (now OB Community Foundation).

A readiness hearing was originally set for May 7, 2025 and a prelim was originally scheduled for May 21. Both of those were postponed.