1973-1977: After high school, Brito enlists and serves in the Marine Corp under the name Freddrick Esparza.
1974: Brito arrested for molesting a boy. The charges were eventually dropped.
1977: Shortly after being discharged, Brito steals $1000 from the bank where he works as a teller. He pleads guilty, and is given four years probation. The next month, he is also caught and convicted of renting cars and not returning them.
1978: Brito is appointed to Mayor Tom Bradley's Los Angeles Youth Advisory Council, but is asked to resign after three months for misusing funds.
1978: Brito is appointed to Mayor Tom Bradley's Los Angeles Youth Advisory Council, but is asked to resign after three months for misusing funds.
1979: Brito breaks the terms of his parole and flees to Canada, where he is arrested for “numerous crimes, including theft of blank airline tickets and possession and use of stolen credit cards.” After eight months in jail, he is extradited to the United States and sent to a Federal Prison.
1980′s: “Brito bounced in and out of prison…by the mid-80′s he had shifted to inventing and assuming identities.”(Tanya Alvanez, LA Times)
1987: Brito uses a fake resume to land a position with the Lancaster Planning Commission. After three months he was fired after city officials discovered the ruse, and he was investigated for possible parole violations.
1987: Brito uses a fake resume to land a position with the Lancaster Planning Commission. After three months he was fired after city officials discovered the ruse, and he was investigated for possible parole violations.
1990: Brito persuaded Erma Bombeck to speak at an Arizona business school he was working at by promising to donate $25,000 of his own money to a charity. When he didn't deliver, he claimed he was awaiting a claim from an airline from a plane crash that his wife and children perished in.
1991: Arrested for grand theft.
1992: Charged with grand theft and forgery.
Mid-90′s: After a few months of living with Norbertine priests in Albuqurque, NM, he is kicked out after they discover he lied about his status as a seminary student in Mexico.
1992: Charged with grand theft and forgery.
Mid-90′s: After a few months of living with Norbertine priests in Albuqurque, NM, he is kicked out after they discover he lied about his status as a seminary student in Mexico.
January, 2002: Brito is fired from an L.A. law firm and charged with embezzling $600 after a short stint as an office manager. Before he he can be arrested, he flees to Yuma, AZ where he works as a priest known as Father B. Gomez de Esparza. One month into it, after a trip to Mexico makes a trip, he is picked up on a warrant for the embezzled $600. However…
He somehow talked his way out of the arrest — church officials say he convinced border police that it was his twin brother they were really after — and headed for Phoenix, where he passed himself off as a visiting priestat two parishes, presiding over a funeral, baptisms and quincea√±eras and saying Mass. (Tanya Alvanez, LA Times)
July 5, 2002: Brito is convicted for Grand Theft and sent to prison.
2002/2003: “Within 3 months” of being released, Brito becomes program director at A Place Called Home, a South Central youth center, using the name Father Federico Brito Gomez de Esparza, but is later fired for “personality conflicts.”
September – December 2003: Brito is hired and then dismissed as an Executive Director at the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California. No details as to why he is no longer there, or what name he used in that position.
September – December 2003: Brito is hired and then dismissed as an Executive Director at the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California. No details as to why he is no longer there, or what name he used in that position.
Summer 2004: Brito is hired as Deputy Director at the Western Law Center for Disability Rights under the name Federiqkoe DiBritto III. His employment is terminated for unknown reasons, although the Center says that his criminal history and aliases weren’t discovered until after he was gone.
October 2004: Brito is hired by the UCLA as a fundraiser (with a $100,000 salary) for the David Geffen School of Medicine. In this position, the Daily Bruin wrote he had “access to donor records, which include donation history, addresses and contact information for various donors to the digestive diseases division.”
October 2004: Brito is hired by the UCLA as a fundraiser (with a $100,000 salary) for the David Geffen School of Medicine. In this position, the Daily Bruin wrote he had “access to donor records, which include donation history, addresses and contact information for various donors to the digestive diseases division.”
June 2005: After being tipped off by police, Brito is fired for falsifying his resume and arrested by campus detectives for violating terms of his parole – apparently in part for not mentioning his criminal history.
June 28, 2005: a man named “Roberto Medina, Common Citizen” posts an interview with Fred Brito on LA Voice, referring to convicted felon Brito as an “alleged felon”, boasted that Antonio Villaraigosa interrupted the interview to give Brito a hug, and referring to Brito’s life as “full of adventure”. I have not been able to track down this “Roberto Medina” for comment. This comes shortly after Fred Brito put himself on the ballot for the Cypress Park Neighborhood Council, but then removed his name.
August 14th, 2005: Only two months later, Brito lands another fundraising job with the American Red Cross (for over $60,000/year) using the name Fred Brito Gomez. When confronted with a background check detailing the criminal history of Fred Brito, he claims that “It must be some kind of identity theft” and is hired.
August 17th, 2005: The Los Angeles Times publishes a detailed profile on Fred Brito’s exploits on the front page. The following day, “debated whether to come in to work that Wednesday morning.” (LA Times, October 8, 2005)Not fired, Brito posts the full text the article on his blog.
September 16th, 2005: After noticing questionable job performance, an executive there became suspicious of Brito’s credentials and did an internet search, turning up a recent front page LA Times article about Brito’s firing at UCLA. Brito was immediately dismissed from the Red Cross,
September 21, 2005: Fred Brito posts an advertisment on his blog that he can be hired to “work for the other side” and help employers and law enforcement identify frauds.
September 16th, 2005: After noticing questionable job performance, an executive there became suspicious of Brito’s credentials and did an internet search, turning up a recent front page LA Times article about Brito’s firing at UCLA. Brito was immediately dismissed from the Red Cross,
September 21, 2005: Fred Brito posts an advertisment on his blog that he can be hired to “work for the other side” and help employers and law enforcement identify frauds.
March 2006: On his blog, Brito writes that he’s cleared parole.
At some point between this and March 2007, Brito deletes his blog at fredbrito.blogspot.com
Late 2006: Brito is hired by the New Mexico Performing Arts Academy in Las Cruces, NM as an administrative director and fundraiser, using the name Federico B. Gomez de Maria
March 2007: After his employers are informed of his real identity, Brito is fired from his job at the New Mexico Performing Arts Academy.
April 2007: Dateline NBC airs an hour long episode about Fred Brito.
September-November 2007: Online court filings show Brito changed his legal name "FROM FREDDRICK BRITO TO GOMEZ DE MARIA", with a petition being filed on September 18 and the order of name change effective November 6.
December 2007: Brito appears on the Dr. Phil talk show and is confronted by a couple he married while posing as a priest years before.
February 2012: Brito is fired from a management position at the Dallas, TX office of staffing HotelPro where he was hired months prior using the name Gomez de Maria after executives learn of the deception.
February 2012: Brito is fired from a management position at the Dallas, TX office of staffing HotelPro where he was hired months prior using the name Gomez de Maria after executives learn of the deception.
