Police arrested the former interim head coach of the University of Nebraska football team this week on charges of domestic assault.
Officers arrested Robert "Mickey" Joseph, 54, around 2 p.m. Wednesday after they were called to a home in Grant, Lincoln police said in a statement shared on social media.
Joseph was arrested on suspicion of strangulation and third-degree domestic assault, the statement said. He was being held at the Lancaster County Jail.
“While the Lincoln Police Department does not normally provide a news release for a domestic-related arrest, due to the high-profile nature of the person involved and, in an effort to provide transparency on an arrest involving a public figure, notification of the arrest is being made,” police said.
"To protect the victim in this case and in compliance with Nebraska state law, additional information, including the identity of the victim and any injures, is not being released."
Joseph did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was unclear whether he had legal representation.
Joseph was most recently the interim head coach for the Cornhuskers of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before the school named Matt Rhule as the head coach Saturday after a monthslong search.
Rhule had not announced whether Joseph would be kept on his staff, and he declined to comment through an athletic department spokesman Wednesday night.
Trev Alberts, the university's director of athletics, said Joseph was placed on administrative leave. “We will have no additional comment at this time,” he said.
Nebraska law defines third-degree domestic assault, one of the two charges Joseph was arrested on, as violence or the threat of violence against an "intimate partner."
Lincoln police could not immediately be reached to provide further details.
Research shows that strangulation in domestic violence cases is a significant predictor of future deadly violence, in addition to being one of the deadliest forms of domestic violence itself, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Joseph was a quarterback for the Cornhuskers from 1988 to 1991 and had run-ins with police during his playing days.
He was arrested in September 1990 on suspicion of criminal mischief after he was accused of breaking an exterior window and damaging an inner window as he was trying to enter his girlfriend’s apartment.
Police reports said the girlfriend’s roommate told officers that a domestic dispute had been going on for several hours before the incident. No charges were filed because of uncooperative witnesses, authorities said.
Joseph was also arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Lincoln in 1989 and suspended for one game.
Joseph’s 25-year coaching career has taken him to all levels of the college game. Rivals.com named him one of the country’s top 25 recruiters in 2019, and he developed four receivers selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft in five years at LSU.
He returned to Nebraska last December as receivers coach and was named interim head coach Sept. 11 after Alberts fired Scott Frost. The Cornhuskers were 3-6 under Joseph and finished the season 4-8.
Joseph had said at his first news conference as interim coach that he wanted the job full-time. He extended scholarship offers to several prospects during his 10 weeks on the job, and he vowed in September to leave the program in better shape than he found it.
“We’re going to do the job the right way,” he said. “We’re not going to sabotage the place.”
Asked Monday how Joseph reacted when told Rhule would be hired, Alberts said, “He took it really good.”
Alberts did not answer directly Monday when he was asked whether Joseph was a serious candidate. Alberts has repeatedly lauded Joseph for creating positive energy around the team and motivating players to play hard.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for anonymous, confidential online chats, available in English and Spanish. States often have their own domestic violence hotlines, as well.
Advocates at the National Domestic Violence Hotline field calls from both survivors of domestic violence and people who are concerned that they may be abusive toward their partners.
