Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Nicholas Brooks Loves to Party with the Private School Set

By DNAinfo Staff on December 9, 2010 7:52pm  | Updated on December 10, 2010 5:38pm

By Jennifer Glickel 

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — By all accounts, Nicholas Alexander Brooks, the 24-year-old man police questioned on Thursday after fashion designer Sylvie Cachay was found dead in his SoHo House room, is a guy who likes to have a good time.

The son of disgraced composer Joseph Brooks, 71, was born in London on Feb. 8, 1986, but raised on the Upper East Side. Nicholas attended private school in the Bronx and hung around with a clique from Manhattan's most selective schools.

He left his city roots to attend the University of Colorado for college, but had recently returned. His social networking posts showed he'd made sure to have a good a time at college.

The young scion loved to brag that he was a regular at Yankees games, watching the Bronx Bombers from a suite with the heirs to Art Modell's fortune, friends said.

Brooks was not shy about describing his extracurricular activities, as many of his photos on Facebook depict him drinking alcohol and smoking from a pipe.

In one such photo, Brooks is posing with dozens of empty liquor bottles with two friends, one of whom is giving the camera two thumbs up.

In another, Brooks is seen smiling while resting a partially consumed bottle of Jack Daniels on his shoulder. One of his friends commented on the photo, writing, "this is exactly what I think of when I think of you."

Brooks' downstairs neighbor, who did not want to be indentified, said that he had called the cops several times on Brooks and his roommates.

"There were parties until the wee hours of the morning," he said.

But a bartender at Cellar 58, which Brooks purportedly frequented, said he was a "very quiet" and "very nice" guy. The bartender, who also did not want to be named, said that Brooks told him he bartended part-time and was an aspiring writer.

Brooks' partying somehow landed him in the social circle of the 33-year-old Cachay. While friends described Brooks as the stereotype of the trust fund life in Manhattan, Cachay appeared to have actually made it through her own efforts.

Brooks' Facebook profile confirms that he described his relationship status as "in a relationship," although it did not indicate with whom.

Friends of Brooks said that the partying had taken its toll.

DNAinfo tracked down at least one bar that he had been banned from on the Upper East Side.

Gabriela Resto-Montero contributed reporting.