Former Wildcats defensive back sentenced in gambling probe

"This was the worst mistake of my life," the 27-year-old Brown told U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle before the sentence was imposed Tuesday.

Norgle said it was a pity that Brown, who has never been in trouble with the law before and was not implicated in betting on Northwestern games or fixing games, will have to be separated from his 9-year-old son.

But he said that lying to a federal grand jury twice was such a serious offense that probation was out of the question, even though Brown overcame a fatherless childhood in Detroit's inner city, had an excellent academic record and has held a steady job since graduation.

Norgle did say that he would not object to allowing Brown to serve his sentence on weekends and thus stay on the job if the federal Bureau of Prisons was willing to go along with such a plan.

Brown was the last defendant remaining to be sentenced in a federal investigation of campus gambling that surfaced in March 1998 and shook the Big Ten school. It snared 11 former football and basketball players.

All of those charged pleaded guilty - five to perjury, four to point shaving and two to illegal gambling.

In his plea agreement, Brown acknowledged lying to the grand jury in 1995 and 1998 when he said that he had never placed bets on football and basketball games with campus bookie Brian Ballarini, and that he knew nothing about betting by roommate Gregory Gill.

archive