Brockovich Men Off the Hook

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/27/1997 at 12:00 AM EST

Prosecutors in Los Angeles dropped extortion charges yesterday against Shawn Brown, 38, and Jorg Halaby, 46, respectively the ex-husband and ex-boyfriend of Erin Brockovich, the feisty legal assistant portrayed by Julia Roberts in a namesake movie earlier this year. They, along with attorney John Jeffrey Reiner, 53 (against whom the charges still stand), were accused of trying to extort $310,000 from Brockovich and her boss, lawyer Ed Masry (played in the film by Albert Finney), reports the Associated Press. Prosecutors said that Brown and Halaby, upset with how they were portrayed onscreen, intended to spread stories about a purported (and apparently non-existent) affair between Brockovich and Masry, with Reiner acting as the go-between.