Brown Guilty of Vandalism, but Is Cleared of Threats : Courts: Ex-football star says he is vindicated in case alleging spousal abuse. He is likely to get probation and community service, prosecutor says.

Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown was convicted Friday of smashing the window of his wife’s car during a June 15 argument, but was acquitted of making terrorist threats against her.

Deputy City Atty. Grace Lee said Brown could be sentenced to up to six months in jail under domestic violence guidelines and be fined as much as $1,000.

Holding hands with his wife, Monique, in the doorway of the Hollywood Municipal Courthouse after the verdicts, Brown declared that he had been vindicated. He also sharply criticized Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn and municipal prosecutors for pursuing the misdemeanor case after Monique Brown recanted her allegations.

“I think they were ruthless and they were vulgar,” Brown, 63, said of prosecutors. The star running back for the Cleveland Browns during the 1960s added: “I think they ruthlessly took advantage of my wife.”

Monique Brown, 25, said nothing to reporters Friday. She smiled as her husband spoke and appeared to be in agreement with his statements.

A jury deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days before acquitting Brown of making a terrorist threat and convicting him of vandalism.

According to one juror, most of the people on the panel believed that Monique Brown had been threatened by her husband but that the prosecution had not proved it during the seven days of testimony and court motions.

“We had no evidence, nothing [in the way of a threat] was written on paper,” said juror Jennifer Rogers, 32. “We had a tape, but it was only what Monique was saying.”

Another juror, Jack Bleck, 31, said Monique Brown’s recantation made it impossible for jurors to tell when she was telling the truth.

“It called into question everything we got from her,” Bleck said outside the courthouse.

Jim Brown, who in the past has faced several other allegations of violence against women, said Friday that he has never denied breaking the window of his wife’s car. Yet he called the conviction on that charge a technicality because he contends that he owns the vehicle, which is registered in his wife’s name. A person should not be charged with vandalizing his own car, he said.

“I take full responsibility for all of this because there are methods of withdrawing, there are ways to avoid problems,” said Brown, who has acted in films and runs the Ameri-I-Can organization, which helps inner-city youths. “I have been a leader in the community across this country. Therefore, I should always take 10 steps back when anything happens.”

Lee said Friday that she was very pleased with the split verdicts. “Terrorist threats charges are extremely difficult to prove, especially when a witness recants,” Lee said.

Although she said a six-month jail sentence was unlikely, she noted that Brown could face 36 months probation, a year of domestic violence counseling and a period of community service.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 23 before Municipal Judge Dale S. Fischer.

On the night of June 15, after arguing with her husband at their Hollywood Hills home, a tearful Monique Brown ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911.

She then told police that the football star had threatened to “snap her neck,” and she warned officers that he kept a gun at his house. Investigators said she recalled how Jim Brown had assaulted her on previous occasions, choking her, giving her a black eye and menacing her with a metal spear.

But days later, she recanted, saying she had made it all up to get back at her husband because she suspected he was having an affair with another woman. She said she was suffering from premenstrual syndrome when she decided to embarrass and humiliate her husband.

Prosecution and defense lawyers characterized the model and community college student as a deeply disturbed woman, but offered very different explanations for her behavior.

Deputy City Atty. Lee told jurors that Monique Brown suffered from battered women’s syndrome and lived as a virtual prisoner in her husband’s home, dependent financially and closely watched by bodyguards. She was so oppressed, prosecutors said, that she allowed her husband to bring another woman home so the three could have sex together.

Under these circumstances, Lee said, it was not surprising that she would recant her accusations.

Jim Brown’s defense lawyer, William Graysen, and a psychiatrist called as an expert witness claimed that she suffered from a borderline personality disorder that made her behave irrationally and vindictively if she felt neglected or abandoned.

The defense lawyer said officials ignored her truthful recantation because the police and the prosecutor are overzealous in cases involving the possibility of domestic abuse and refuse to listen to the truth.

It was not the first time the burly football hero had been accused of mistreating a woman.

In 1968, Brown was arrested and accused of assault with intent to commit murder when his girlfriend at the time was found unconscious outside his apartment. The charges were dropped when she said she had fallen.

In 1971, misdemeanor charges of battery and disturbing the peace against Brown were dropped after the two women who had made the allegations failed to testify at his trial.

In 1985, charges of rape and assault with a deadly weapon were dropped because of what prosecutors called inconsistencies in witnesses’ stories.

In 1986, Brown was booked on suspicion of felony battery after a woman told police he had beaten her. Prosecutors declined to pursue the case when the woman refused to cooperate.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this story.