Coach, Wife Plead Not Guilty to Arranging Sex With Players : Courts: Couple has moved from the Hemet area and is living ‘in virtual seclusion,’ their attorney says.

In a scandal that their attorney says has been exaggerated, Hemet High School football coach Randy Brown and his wife, Kelly, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that the coach arranged for a former player to have sex with his wife, and that the couple solicited a second boy for sex.

Appearing stoic as they walked through a battery of television cameras and reporters, Randy Brown, 39, and his wife, 31, were ordered to return to Superior Court next month for their preliminary hearing.

Monday’s arraignment before Superior Court Judge James T. Warren was the Browns’ first public appearance since their arrests. Neither spoke to reporters as they were whisked in and out of the courtroom.

The couple’s defense attorney said he hoped that the charges against them could be resolved before a trial, but the prosecutor said he was not prepared to accept a guilty plea to anything less than the three felonies each faces.

The Browns were arrested in Hemet last month on two counts each of conspiracy to commit oral copulation on a minor, and one count each of committing oral copulation on a minor. Deputy Dist. Atty. Todd Rash said that although the coach was not involved in having sex with a member of his team, he faces the same charge as his wife, who allegedly did.

A second boy was solicited for sex but rejected it, Rash said. Both alleged victims were minors and members of Brown’s football squad at the time.

The couple remain free on $5,000 bail each, and are living “nowhere near Hemet,” defense attorney Steve Harmon said.

“They’ve lost a lot of sleep over this,” he said. “Their stress level is very high, their worry factor is very high. That’s to be expected.”

The case has attracted wide notoriety, and Harmon said he has spent more time dealing with media and Hollywood inquiries than preparing for the case itself.

He acknowledged that all the ingredients in the “highly combustible” case generate public interest: “Young boys, a beautiful young woman, a football coach, a small town--and sex.”

But, he added, “when all the facts are known, this will be far less of a matter than everyone’s assuming at the present time.”

“I think (the district attorney’s office) has overcharged this case,” Harmon said. “If it is a criminal matter at all, it should be a misdemeanor.

“They certainly don’t want their private lives aired in court,” Harmon said of the Browns. “They feel for the boys involved, and don’t want them to suffer the same fate the Browns would suffer, if aired.”

The Hemet News has reported that prosecutors have a tape recording of Randy Brown before he and his wife were arrested, asking one of the boys in the case to change his story. Rash confirmed that a tape exists, but would not discuss its contents.

The Browns, who have three young children, are living in virtual seclusion, Harmon said.

Harmon said Randy Brown “won’t be able to teach or coach for a long time. I’m assuming his notoriety will follow him.”

School district officials have placed Randy Brown on administrative leave without pay and have hired a private investigator to study the allegations.