DETROIT – A man who spent nearly three years in a Chinese prison after getting caught up in a bar fight while working overseas as a football coach is now back home in Detroit.
Wendell Brown was convicted and given a lengthy sentence that his lawyer said was excessive.
Brown won his freedom from a Chinese prison after being held for three years for a bar fight he said he didn't start and wasn't responsible for.
He said he was throwing up his hands in self-defense, but the Chinese government charged him with what amounts to criminal assault.
Brown said after pleas from family members, friends, the State Department and the state of Michigan, he was released a year early.
The hardest part of the last three years was not having any verbal contact with his family, Brown said. His only phone call was to his dying grandfather.
On Wednesday, Brown was filled with gratitude as he stood on U.S. soil as a free man.
You can watch Paula Tutman's full story in the video posted above.