CLEVELAND, Ohio – Legendary Cleveland Browns fullback Jim Brown has died, leaving many to celebrate the football star for his on-the-field prowess and off-the-field civil rights activism.
But Brown’s legacy also includes several accusations of abusing women, which continued to mar his image throughout his later life.
On June 9, 1968, Brown, then 32, was booked on suspicion of assault with intent to commit murder against his girlfriend, Eva Marie Bohn-Chin, 22. The arrest occurred when Brown lived in Los Angeles while working as an actor. The woman, a model, was found semiconscious and moaning on a concrete patio 20 feet below the balcony of Brown’s Hollywood apartment, The Plain Dealer reported. Deputies reported finding blood and patches of hair inside the apartment.
Bohn-Chin told investigators she fell, and the district attorney declined to prosecute, citing a lack of evidence.
In 1965, an 18-year-old accused Brown of assault and battery in an East Side Cleveland motel, later alleging that he fathered her child. A Cleveland Municipal Court jury acquitted him following a 10-day trial that summer.
In 1985, Brown was booked on suspicion of rape and sexual battery in Los Angeles, following a complaint by a 33-year-old substitute schoolteacher. She claimed Brown punched her in the face, choked her nearly unconscious and threatened to break her ribs before sexually assaulting her. Charges were dropped three months later.
In 1999, Brown was tried in Hollywood Municipal Court on domestic violence charges after his wife, Monique, called 911 that June, according to published reports. He was accused of making a terrorist threat and vandalism for smashing her car with a shovel. His wife, however, pleaded with police detectives not to arrest the Hall of Famer. She testified that she had lied to authorities about her husband’s behavior.
A police officer who interviewed Brown’s wife after the 911 call testified that “she just wanted me to take a report in case something were to happen in the future,” The Plain Dealer reported. “Her eyes were red. She was kind of shaky.”
Jurors acquitted Brown of the more serious charge of making a terrorist threat but convicted him of misdemeanor vandalism. A judge sentenced him to a year of domestic violence counseling, along with community service penalties. When Brown refused, the judge imposed a six-month jail sentence. He served four months.
Brown denied the allegations in every case. “I’m no angel,” he told The Plain Dealer in 1970. But regarding the allegations, he said, “I’ve never been convicted. I’ve just been harassed. I’ve been hit so much I don’t sting any more.”
When facing such controversies, he added, “I take it and look my accuser in the eye. I don’t look at my shoes when I talk to anybody. I know what I am. I only have to live with myself.”