Former Notre Dame assistant football coach Corwin Brown will not serve any jail time for hitting his wife and holding her hostage in a seven-hour armed standoff with police last August, according to the Associated Press.
St. Joseph County Judge Jane Woodward Miller agreed Tuesday to permit Brown to avoid prison after his wife, Melissa, said separating her husband from his family and the counseling he is currently receiving would do more harm than good.
Brown's wife also said she did not feel victimized in the situation, according to the Associated Press report.
Miller sentenced Brown to consecutive two-year prison sentences, which she suspended, placed him on probation and ordered him to continue to undergo counseling.
On Aug. 12, 2011, St. Joseph County Police responded to a call from Brown's wife about domestic violence at the former coach's home. At the time, The Observer reported she told officers her husband threatened her with a gun in his pocket earlier in the day. Police remained outside the Brown home for seven hours while a SWAT team negotiated with an armed Brown, according to police reports.
Brown, 42, pleaded guilty but mentally ill in June to felony confinement and domestic battery charges as part of a plea agreement.
Brown was a member of the Notre Dame football coaching staff from 2007 to 2009. He then served as a defensive backs coach with the New England Patriots during the 2010 NFL season, but he was relieved of his team duties in February 2011.
