NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An Alabama man pleaded guilty Tuesday to obscenity charges and faces a two-year prison sentence for rubbing
his genitals on an unconscious LSU fan in a Bourbon Street restaurant after the BCS national title game in January.
Prosecutors reached a plea deal with Brian
H. Downing of Smith Station, Ala., on the morning he was scheduled to be
tried
on charges that included sexual battery, which is punishable by up
to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors agreed to drop the battery
charge.
Downing is scheduled to be formally
sentenced on Nov. 29, but Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Karen
Herman indicated
she will sentence Downing to two years in prison and recommend his
participation in a boot camp program run by prison officials.
Downing will not be required to register as a sex offender.
A video that went viral on the Internet
appeared to show someone in a University of Alabama jacket exposing his
genitals and
performing a simulated sex act on the unconscious man at the
restaurant after the Crimson Tide beat LSU for the BCS football
championship on Jan. 9.
The LSU fan has sued Downing, asking damages for "mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, anxiety and depression ... damage
to reputation" and lost tuition payments "for having to withdraw from school."
Christopher Bowman, spokesman for District
Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, said prosecutors consulted with the victim
before agreeing
on the plea deal. He described it as the "most just outcome and
also the most certain outcome." He rejected the notion that
Downing's actions were merely a drunken prank.
"When you put your genitals on someone's body, someone who is passed out, that's not a prank," he said. "I don't think people
would be asking that question if the defendant had done it to a passed-out woman."
Michael Kennedy, one of Downing's attorneys,
said his client decided to accept the deal in large part because he has
a 1-year-old
son and didn't want to have to register as a sex offender.
"Is it worth the risk of never seeing a Little League game? Of never being able to drop your child off at school? He decided
no," Kennedy said.
Although Downing will be sentenced to two years, he may be eligible to serve less than half of that. Kennedy estimated his
client will serve a minimum of nine months.
Downing didn't answer a reporter's questions after the brief hearing.
New Orleans police at first said they could
only investigate the case if the fan filed a complaint, then sent out a
wanted
poster with screenshots from the video. Downing, a cousin of
Russell County, Ala., Sheriff Heath Taylor, turned himself in.
Taylor said in January that after learning
from other family members that Downing had been identified as the
Alabama fan,
he called Downing's father and told him to bring him to the
sheriff's office in Phenix City, Ala. He said he then called New
Orleans police to ask whether they wanted him to jail and
extradite Downing or send him to New Orleans to surrender.