AVON LAKE, Ohio – Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Michael Hall pleaded no contest to charges related to a domestic incident from earlier this summer.
Hall, 21, entered the plea Thursday in Avon Lake Municipal Court to disorderly conduct. Judge Allison Manning found him guilty. She suspended a 30-day jail sentence and fined Hall $250 and placed him on two years of inactive, non-reporting probation.
The sentence allows Manning to re-impose the 30-day jail sentence if Hall is charged in other criminal cases while on probation.
Hall originally had been charged with domestic violence, a first-degree misdemeanor. He entered the plea to disorderly conduct, which is a lesser charge. Richard Kray, Avon’s prosecutor, asked the judge for a suspended sentence.
“I regret this whole situation,” Hall said in court. “I’m getting counseling and trying to better myself.”
The rookie has been unable to play games or practice with the Browns because he was placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List after the incident.
Hall’s attorney, Kevin Spellacy, told reporters after the hearing that they will work with the NFL to get Hall on the field this season.
Last week, a protection order between Hall and his fiancée, who initially accused him of domestic violence, was dropped at the fiancée’s request.
Eric Long, an attorney representing the woman, was in court, but his client was in the jury room during the hearing. Long told Manning the fiancée was in favor of Hall pleading down. He declined additional comment to reporters after the hearing.
On Aug. 12, police were dispatched to a home in Avon that was shared by Hall, his fiancée and the fiancée’s mother to investigate an allegation of domestic violence against Hall.
There, the fiancée and her mother told police that Hall had pushed the fiancée and threw a baby bottle at her head. They also said he dragged the fiancée out of the house and down the driveway and that he punched holes in the wall. When officers arrived, they found damage in the home they believed corroborated parts of the fiancée’s story, police said.
The victim initially accused Hall of putting a gun to her head and threatening to kill her. In a report filed with Avon police later that week, she recanted that allegation. Police released the report Thursday.
“I do not recall a gun being put to my hand [sic],” the woman wrote. “I do not recall seeing any guns around me.”
The fiancée also said in the follow-up report that some of the damage to the house might have been caused when moving a bed.
“That night was a blur and anything said isn’t reliable to the events,” the woman said in the follow-up statement.
This is not the first time the couple has had a domestic incident. Last year, the fiancée was charged with domestic violence after police say she smashed a glass bottle on Hall’s head outside an airport in Columbus. That case was later dismissed.