Frank Clark accepts plea, serious charges dismissed
By Mark Snyder, Detroit Free Press
Former Michigan defensive end Frank Clark's path to the NFL draft might have cleared significantly.
He will not have a domestic violence conviction on his record and he will not need to return to jail.
Clark accepted a plea bargain at the Sandusky Municipal Court in Ohio on Thursday that dismissed his first-degree misdemeanor charges for domestic violence and assault. He pleaded guilty to a charge of persistent disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor, according to a court official.
He was also sentenced Thursday, with a fine of $250, court costs of $100 and an undisclosed probation fee. He will not have to serve any additional jail time.
The charges stemmed from an incident Nov.15 at a Sandusky indoor water park, the Maui Sands, where witnesses told police that Clark roughed up his live-in 20-year-old girlfriend while spending a bye weekend with her family.
He immediately was jailed and two days later was released on bond. That same day, then-Michigan coach Brady Hoke kicked Clark off the team, ending his career a week before senior day and with two games left in the season.
Clark is now an NFL prospect, and domestic violence has been a hot-button issue for the league since Ray Rice punched his then-fiancée in an Atlantic City elevator.
At the time of the incident, the witnesses — which included two of the girlfriend's younger brothers and other hotel guests — described a brutal scene in the hotel room to police. The girlfriend, Diamond Hurt, said she and Clark began to argue while lying on the bed. She said she threw a TV remote control at him, and he responded by trying to restrain her. She said that she tried to get loose by biting his nose. Then she said he pushed her head into the bed, they got off the bed and he punched her in the face, knocking her back and breaking a lamp. She said that she threw an alarm clock at him as he prepared to leave.
Both brothers said that they saw Clark hitting their sister. One brother told police that Clark had consumed at least a fifth of Hennessy — Hurt's breath test measured .000%. One brother said Clark grabbed her by the throat, picked her off the ground and slammed her down.
Perkins Township officer Martin Curran told the Free Press at the time: "She's got a large welt on the side of her cheek, she's got marks on her neck. She had what looked like rug burn on her one thigh."
At the NFL's scouting combine in February — which came before his pretrail hearing — Clark made his first comments to reporters:
"I don't want to get into too much detail. The detail I did get into I did with NFL teams. When we were in the room, the person involved let something get out of hand and took something further than what it was planned.
"You look at a phone and nowadays these phones get a lot of people in trouble. I'm not saying I'm a womanizer or anything of that nature. I'm just saying it was a confrontation between me and one of my friends and the woman involved took it to another level that it shouldn't have been taken to.
"That's fine. I'm not throwing her under the bus. I'm not saying she did anything wrong. I'm just saying that a lot of things that happened in that room that night could have been avoided."
U-M's best defensive player last season, Clark performed extremely well at the combine, measuring 6-feet-3, 271 pounds and showing remarkable agility with the best 60-yard defensive lineman shuttle since 2006 and among the best in a number of other drills.
Because of the off-field trouble, some draftniks like the NFL Network's Mike Mayock and ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. have speculated Clark may fall significantly or go undrafted. But with his court case settled and the domestic violence charge dropped, his stock could rebound before the April 30 draft.
On Clark's NFL.com profile, there is analysis that he could be drafted in the top 100 picks and an anonymous scout who said he wouldn't last past the fourth round.
By Mark Snyder, Detroit Free Press
Former Michigan defensive end Frank Clark's path to the NFL draft might have cleared significantly.
He will not have a domestic violence conviction on his record and he will not need to return to jail.
Clark accepted a plea bargain at the Sandusky Municipal Court in Ohio on Thursday that dismissed his first-degree misdemeanor charges for domestic violence and assault. He pleaded guilty to a charge of persistent disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor, according to a court official.
He was also sentenced Thursday, with a fine of $250, court costs of $100 and an undisclosed probation fee. He will not have to serve any additional jail time.
The charges stemmed from an incident Nov.15 at a Sandusky indoor water park, the Maui Sands, where witnesses told police that Clark roughed up his live-in 20-year-old girlfriend while spending a bye weekend with her family.
He immediately was jailed and two days later was released on bond. That same day, then-Michigan coach Brady Hoke kicked Clark off the team, ending his career a week before senior day and with two games left in the season.
Clark is now an NFL prospect, and domestic violence has been a hot-button issue for the league since Ray Rice punched his then-fiancée in an Atlantic City elevator.
At the time of the incident, the witnesses — which included two of the girlfriend's younger brothers and other hotel guests — described a brutal scene in the hotel room to police. The girlfriend, Diamond Hurt, said she and Clark began to argue while lying on the bed. She said she threw a TV remote control at him, and he responded by trying to restrain her. She said that she tried to get loose by biting his nose. Then she said he pushed her head into the bed, they got off the bed and he punched her in the face, knocking her back and breaking a lamp. She said that she threw an alarm clock at him as he prepared to leave.
Both brothers said that they saw Clark hitting their sister. One brother told police that Clark had consumed at least a fifth of Hennessy — Hurt's breath test measured .000%. One brother said Clark grabbed her by the throat, picked her off the ground and slammed her down.
Perkins Township officer Martin Curran told the Free Press at the time: "She's got a large welt on the side of her cheek, she's got marks on her neck. She had what looked like rug burn on her one thigh."
At the NFL's scouting combine in February — which came before his pretrail hearing — Clark made his first comments to reporters:
"I don't want to get into too much detail. The detail I did get into I did with NFL teams. When we were in the room, the person involved let something get out of hand and took something further than what it was planned.
"You look at a phone and nowadays these phones get a lot of people in trouble. I'm not saying I'm a womanizer or anything of that nature. I'm just saying it was a confrontation between me and one of my friends and the woman involved took it to another level that it shouldn't have been taken to.
"That's fine. I'm not throwing her under the bus. I'm not saying she did anything wrong. I'm just saying that a lot of things that happened in that room that night could have been avoided."
U-M's best defensive player last season, Clark performed extremely well at the combine, measuring 6-feet-3, 271 pounds and showing remarkable agility with the best 60-yard defensive lineman shuttle since 2006 and among the best in a number of other drills.
Because of the off-field trouble, some draftniks like the NFL Network's Mike Mayock and ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. have speculated Clark may fall significantly or go undrafted. But with his court case settled and the domestic violence charge dropped, his stock could rebound before the April 30 draft.
On Clark's NFL.com profile, there is analysis that he could be drafted in the top 100 picks and an anonymous scout who said he wouldn't last past the fourth round.
