Does Councilmember Brian Davis’s rubber check scandal stretch beyond one bad debt?

Frank LoTempio III, attorney for Councilmember Brian Davis, talks to Channel 7's Steve Barber outside D District headquarters.

On Tuesday evening, Ellicott District Councilmember Brian Davis and his attorney, Frank LoTempio III, met again with Buffalo Police at D District headquarters on Hertel Avenue to discuss allegations that Davis bounced a check for more than $3,500. The recipient of the bad check was Kevin Brinkworth, owner of the Gates Circle building that housed the restaurant One Sunset, which closed in December.

The restaurant, which was owned by local basketball legend Leonard Stokes, fell behind on rent, so the story goes, and Davis stepped in to help out—an especially generous gesture considering that he apparently had no money to back the check he gave to Brinkworth. To cover it, he turned to local musician Wade Hawkins, with whom he reportedly struck a usurious deal: Hawkins fronted Davis $5,000 with which to pay Brinkworth, and Davis would pay Hawkins back after one month—with $1,000 interest.

But Brinkworth claims the check was never made good. And Hawkins says his loan was never repaid. Buffalo Police are investigating, trying to determine if this is a civil or a criminal matter. In regard to the Brinkworth check, if it did indeed bounce, it would seem to be criminal: Under New York State law, a person who passes a bad check has 10 days from the time the recipient notifies him or her that the check is no good to pay up. After 10 days, it’s a criminal offense.

The loan from Hawkins, on the other hand, is most likely a civil case, if what Hawkins has said to the press is true.

On behalf of his client, LoTempio proclaimed Davis’s innocence to Steve Barber of Channel 7 Eyewitness News and Artvoice outside D District headquarters on Tuesday evening. He said it’s all a civil matter, and that the full story, if it comes out in court, will exonerate Davis. “This story is completely false, it’s certainly otherwise than the facts seem,” LoTempio said. “It’s not black and white. There’s contract issues. There is promissory notes issues. Those are the issues that will play out in court.”

Buffalo fireman Bryon McIntyre claims there’s more to the story, too. McIntyre ran against Davis in 2007’s Democratic primary; Davis won handily and went on to be reelected. While he was working the neighborhoods of the Ellicott District, McIntyre says, at least three owners of corner stores on the city’s Lower West Side told him that Davis had bounced checks in their stores, ranging between $300 and $500 for each check. None of the store owners complained, McIntyre said, because they were intimidated by Davis’s power to strip away their operating licenses.

McIntyre, a recovering addict and alcoholic who has been sober for 20 years, said he had no intention of using this personal information about his opponent in his campaign. “I live in a glass house,” he told me. “But everybody knew about this stuff. And now that this other story is out there, I think he needs to be exposed for this. This is not a one-time thing with him.”

The store owners are still afraid. I visited several corner stores on the Lower West Side earlier this week to check out what McIntyre told me. (I’ve left out their names and the exact locations of their stores: If Davis survives this scandal, they fear retaliation.) I asked the owners if they’d had trouble with Davis’s checks. All of them were at first reluctant to answer. “He has done bad to me,” one store owner finally admitted, “but I don’t want to do bad to him.” Then he told me that Davis had cashed a check in his store and told him to wait two weeks to bring it to the bank. Later, the man’s brother told me that Davis didn’t make good on that check for two years. Prior to this incident, Davis had caused the man’s shop to be closed for several months, so he kept quiet about the affair.

Another store owner told me that he too cashed a bad check from Davis, but that Davis eventually paid him back for it. It took a month, however, and the store owner had to keep calling and pestering Davis to pay.

These store owners—five altogether, and all but one expressed some knowledge of Davis writing bad checks in corner stores—were friendly but not forthcoming. The second store owner told me, “No one is going to talk to you.” Lots of his fellow store owners have had the same problem with Davis, he told me, as have store owners on the East Side. But they’re all afraid to cross Davis, because a councilmember has de facto power to close or keep open a corner deli in his or her district, or to impose conditions on licensing that cost store owners a great deal of money.

Davis is on sick leave through February 16, though he looked hale in the parking lot of D District on Tuesday. We conveyed a message to him regarding these allegations through his City Hall office, asking for a response. We’re told our questions were emailed to him. He did not reply to us. We also left numerous messages for LoTempio, his attorney. LoTempio did not return our calls.

—geoff kelly