Doctors split on mental state of ex-Notre Dame coach Brown

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SOUTH BEND — A psychiatrist and a psychologist came up with different opinions on the mental state of former Notre Dame assistant football coach Corwin Brown who is accused of striking his wife and holding her hostage in a seven-hour standoff with police at his home, a judge said Tuesday.

Brown's family has said they believe his actions last August might stem from brain trauma he suffered when he was an NFL defensive back. Brown, 41, played in college at Michigan and played eight seasons in the NFL as a defensive back with the Patriots, Jets and Lions.

Reports by the two doctors came back with a "split of opinion," St. Joseph County Judge Jane Woodward Miller said during a brief court hearing Tuesday morning. The reports by George Parker, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and Warren Sibilla, a South Bend psychologist, were not immediately available.

Defense attorney Mike Tuszynski wouldn't comment on the contents of the reports other than to say the two doctors came up with different conclusions. Woodward Miller had ordered the tests to determine whether Brown is competent to stand trial and his mental status at the time.

"The reports need to be reviewed and then we'll sit down with the prosecutors to see where both sides are," Tuszynski said.

Brown didn't speak to reporters on Tuesday.

After the Aug. 12 standoff at his home in Granger, just northeast of South Bend, Brown was taken away with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He faces charges of confinement and domestic battery. Prosecutors say Brown held his wife hostage with a handgun and bruised her.

A status hearing is scheduled for June 28.