Coach of the Texas Longhorns suspended following allegations of assaulting fiancée
Chris Beard, the head coach of the University of Texas basketball team, was arrested on Monday for felony domestic abuse. As a result, he was placed on indefinite leave without pay.
Chris Beard, the head coach of the University of Texas basketball team, was arrested on Monday for felony domestic abuse and has since been placed on indefinite leave without pay.
After announcing Beard’s suspension, the university stated, “The University takes matters of interpersonal violence involving members of its community seriously,” as The Washington Post reported.
“Given the information available, The University has suspended Chris Beard from his position as head coach of Men’s Basketball and will withhold his pay until further notice.”
According to PEOPLE, Beard was charged by the City of Austin Police Department on Monday with a third-degree felony of assault on a family member.
In his second season as the Texas Longhorns coach, the 49-year-old man was taken into custody at 12:15 a.m. in Austin after his fiancée reported to the police that he had attempted to choke her…
“He just snapped on me and became super violent,” the woman claimed in an affidavit obtained by the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. “[Beard] choked me, threw me off the bed, bit me, bruises all over my leg, throwing me around, and going nuts.”
As per the affidavit, Beard also allegedly wrapped his arm over her neck.
In the statement, she stated, “Yes, I could not breathe; he did it for probably about five seconds.”
When police responded to a 911 call from the West Austin house, they learned that the pair “had been upset with each other for a couple of days regarding relationship issues,” according to the lady.
She went on to say that Beard was twisting his reading spectacles while he sat up straight in bed, and she broke them. Ten to fifteen minutes later, she offered to fetch Beard a new pair of glasses, but he slapped her own off her face and choked her, according to the affidavit.
Upon being questioned about why he had stopped choking her, the purported victim replied, “I don’t know, he just let go.”
She claimed in the affidavit that in spite of this, she had bite marks on her right arm, an abrasion on her right eyebrow, a scrape on her left leg from her knee to her foot, a cut with dried blood on her left thumb, and scratches on her back and right eye.
She added that she had shallow and difficult breathing during the episode, as well as rapid breathing following it.
“My leg is really killing me right now,” she said in the document, referring to Beard reportedly dragging her off a bed.
According to the affidavit, Beard claimed to have audio recordings to show he wasn’t the main aggressor while he was on the scene, but he was unwilling to disclose them.
After being arrested at Travis County Jail, the head basketball coach was freed after posting a $10,000 bond.
“Coach Beard is 100% innocent of these charges,” the Austin American-Statesman was informed by Beard’s lawyer, Perry Minton. “His arrest was not warranted. The complainant demands that all charges be dropped and that he be released right away. It really is unthinkable.”
Beard had been engaged for three years and had been with his fiancée for six years overall. They live together in the same house.
