He then studied law in the office of Moore, Laine, Delmas & Leib, and in April 1877 he was admitted to practice before the State Supreme Court.

[11] The next day, another Examiner reporter, E. J. Stillwell, filed a suit in San Francisco stating that he himself had played the part of Thomas Stoley and had paid Bruner $400 for a job on the police force but "the lawmaker has failed to keep his contract and deliver the position".

The majority document, signed by members A. J. Bledsoe, A. J. Jackson, F. H. Gould and John R. Mathews, found Bruner had "the intention of selling a position on the police force of San Francisco and appropriating to the use of himself and accomplices the proceeds thereof".

During the session, the Assembly dissolved into "the greatest confusion", with Bruner weeping and Speaker Frank Coombs splintering his gavel "in a wild attempt to restore something like order, and several ladies were borne from the chamber in a fainting condition".

[14] The Examiner returned to the attack in June 1891, claiming that Bruner had been promised $1,000 by "ticket brokers" for his help in squelching a bill "designed to abolish the ticket-scalping business".

[18] In April 1892, however, warrants were issued in San Francisco on the complaint of John P. Dunn charging Bruner and former Assembly member J.E.

McCall with asking a $1,000 bribe from Adolph Ottinger, a "ticket scalper", to defeat an Assembly bill titled "An Act to Prevent Fraud on Travelers".