Former ESPN pundit Jay Mariotti will not face jail time in his second domestic violence case in as many years.
Mariotti was sentenced Tuesday to five years probation, 90 days of community service and a year-long domestic violence course after agreeing with a judge to plead no contest to charges related to a domestic violence incident.
He will be eligible to have his probation reduced after three years (latimes.com, 9/13).
After allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend in April, Mariotti was charged with three felonies — stalking, corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant, and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury — and two misdemeanor counts of disobeying a domestic court order (da.lacounty.gov, 5/11).
He pled not guilty to those charges in May.
This is the second time in a year Mariotti has agreed to a deal in a domestic violence case. After allegedly assaulting the same ex-girlfriend in 2010, he pled no contest to a single misdemeanor domestic violence charge in exchange for having six others dropped.
He was sentenced to essentially the same punishment as in the current case — three years probation, community service and a year-long domestic violence course.
A spokesman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s office said that Mariotti “threw himself at the mercy of the judge over prosecutors’ objections,” adding that prosecutors “thought he should get some time in jail” (turnto23.com, 9/13).
Mariotti maintained his innocence through his representative, calling the decision to plead no contest practical rather than an admission of guilt (latimes.com, 9/13).
(Information from Los Angeles Times, turnto23.com)
