Hearing that would hurt more than any sentence the judge could hand out.
Disgraced Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore was sentenced today after pleading no contest last month to one charge of trespassing and one charge of malicious use of a telecommunications device.
The coach was sentenced to 18 months probation and fined $1,000, but during his sentencing the judge made clear that there was only one reason Moore wasn’t punished more harshly than he was: His wife, Kelli Moore.
Of course that’s ironic, given that the allegations against Moore stems from an affair that he had with a staffer while serving as the head coach at Michigan.
In a statement at the time of his firing, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel dropped the bombshell that Moore was being let go for having an inappropriate relationship with a member of his staff:
“Following a university investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and UM maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”
Shortly after his firing, according to prosecutors and publicly released 911 calls, Moore’s wife called the police and reported that he was threatening to kill himself. He then allegedly went to the apartment of his mistress and “grabbed several butter knives and a pair of kitchen scissors, and began to threaten his own life.”
Moore has been married to his wife, Kelli, for a decade, and the couple have three children together. Throughout the court process, Moore’s wife has appeared by his side and seemed to be supportive of her husband – something that didn’t go unnoticed by Judge Cedric Simpson.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Simpson made clear that Kelli was a victim in this case as well, but praised her strength in trying to keep her family together:
“There is a certain irony in a lot of this – and it’s a big one in my opinion. The person, quite frankly, Mr. Moore, that is saving you from the full wrath of this court is the one you betrayed.
I don’t know where your wife Kelli finds her strength. When all of the circumstances are happening and they’re happening to her and she’s absorbing them in real time, she not once loses her focus. She not once bats an eye to sort of doubt you. She not once wants something terrible to happen to you.
As I listen to the terror in her voice that day, I don’t think there would be anybody in the world that given all the circumstances would have blamed her if she just said, “I don’t care.”
That’s not what she did. She didn’t know where you were, but she was going to tell the police, try to do this to find him. And she said something that was remarkable, and that is, ‘Just tell him I love him and to come home.’
Incredible.”
The judge also had harsh words for Moore for putting his wife in this situation:
“What she had to deal with was just an an incredible burden. She didn’t bat an eye. … She was just pointing forward, leaning on her faith, and trying to just put her family and find a way forward for her family which was inclusive of her family.
I think in life sometimes people take a lot for granted. You sir, take her for granted.”
The court then directed his words directly at Kelli Moore:
“I am amazed by you, Mrs. Moore. I truly am. I don’t know where it comes from.
I think, in all honesty, given all the hurt and pain, that if we had more people like you in this world I may be out of a job but I think this world would be a better place.”
Both Moore and his wife were fighting back tears at the judge’s comments, and at a press conference with his attorney after the sentencing the couple held hands while the coach declined to speak himself.
There’s no doubt the whole thing has been incredibly painful on his whole family, but hopefully Moore and Kelli are able to work through everything and keep their family together.
If nothing else, it sounds like based on the judge’s comments he should be thanking her for helping him get a lighter sentence…
