At 6:00 with breaking news
tonight on the arrest of UT men's
basketball coach Chris Beard,
the University has now suspended
the men's head basketball coach
without pay until further notice.
He was arrested early this
morning on an assault charge.
Thanks for joining us for the news at 6.
I'm Brian May. And I'm
Ashley. Good.
Aquita Culpepper has the night off.
Less than an hour ago,
UT released a statement saying,
given the current information available,
Chris Beard is currently suspended,
like you said, Brian,
without pay until further notice.
We do have team coverage tonight.
We'll start with Cavus
sports director Jeff Jones.
He's live at the Moody Center tonight.
There's a game tonight, Jeff.
Yes, there is, guys. You're right.
It'll take place at 7:00 o'clock.
And the men's basketball team,
which is currently ranked 7th in the nation,
will still play rice even though
it's just hours after the head coach,
Chris Beard was arrested,
as you guys told us just a moment ago.
Now, we have a few details following
that arrest, but I will let you
know kind of the scene here.
We saw that something was going to happen.
This news was going to break news that
broke about 15 or 20 minutes ago.
When we arrived at the Moody Center,
we saw members of the Sports Information
team just moving with a little more purpose,
had more focus on their faces.
So we knew something would break
and Ryan and Ashley?
It sure did.
I think we have the full screen
statement up right now that
we just received from Texas.
It says the university takes matters
of interpersonal violence involving
members of its community seriously
given the information available.
The university has suspended Chris
Beard from his position as head coach
of the men's basketball team and will
withhold his pay until further notice.
Associate head coach Rodney Terry
will serve as acting head coach
for tonight's game against Rice,
and so this could just be the
first of many punishments.
And we see for coach Beard,
we're gonna have to wait
and see how things develop.
But depending on the information
that the program receives,
they could punish beard in a number of ways,
including firing him.
There's a clause in coach bears
contract stating the program can let
him go as a result of a criminal charge
involving a felony dishonesty or,
quote, moral turpitude.
The way many coaches contracts are
structured now require schools to
pay large amounts if they're fired
before the life of the contract ends,
but this clause may allow Texas
around a large payout.
If they think that punishment
is deserved now,
around 2:30 today we saw beard leave
the Travis County Jail or Tyler
Feldman was there and asked Coach
Beard if he would coach tonight.
He remained silent on his walk to his car.
But since the end, of course,
we have found out that it's not
going to be him coaching.
It's going to be a head coach.
Our associate head coach,
Rodney Terry,
we can come back out on the screen right now.
You can see Coach Terry is at the
far side of the court watching
the Longhorns warm up.
This team is less than an hour
away from a game.
That's right,
a good rice team that is only focused on
an upset while the guys in the burn orange,
you know, have much,
much more on their minds.
A little later in the show in sports,
we're going to hear from coach
Terry and what his mindset may
be going into his first game
as acting head coach in years.
We'll send it back to you guys in the station
that Sports director Jeff Jones live
for us at the Moody Center tonight.
Jeff will check back in with you
in just a few minutes from now.
Beard in his second year now with
the Longhorns earning about $5
million per year in his contract.
Taxes. He was hired following the
departure of Shaka Smart Beard.
Previously the head coach at Texas Tech,
he led the Longhorns last year to
a 22 and 12 record in the second
round of the NCAA Tournament.
This year, the horns are seven and one.
They're ranked 7th in the country.
Polls just came out today.
Again, they do host rice.
There is a game taking place
with the men's team tonight.
Now, we've also learned more
details tonight about the arrest
of Chris Beard earlier today.
That's right. KB Senior reporter Tony
Pluhowsky is joining us in the studio.
Tony, what did you find out?
Well, we are still learning the
allegations from last night,
but according to incident records and
court records, here's what we know.
Police received a 911 call shortly after
midnight about a woman possibly being
strangled in a family violence incident.
Officers responded to an address
in Tarrytown and West Austin.
Now, according to court records,
the woman told police that Beard
quote choked me, threw me off the bed,
bit me, bruises all over my leg.
Growing me around and going nuts,
police arrested him and booked
him into the Travis County jail
around 4:00 o'clock this morning.
Beard's been about 10 hours in jail
before he was released on a $10,000 bond.
He did not answer questions as he
walked from the jail with his attorney.
That attorney, Perry Minton,
told me in a statement that his client
is 100% innocent and that, quote,
he should have never been arrested.
The complainant,
according to his defense attorney, wants him.
Released immediately and all
charges dismissed.
Now because this case involved
an allegation of strangulation,
the charges upgraded from a
misdemeanor to a third degree felony.
A person convicted of that crime does
face possibly up to 10 years behind bars.
Brian and
Ashley. A couple of questions first
of all the attorney commenting
on the complainants. Thoughts.
How rare is that and what's next for coach
beer? Well, I think the
defense attorney is setting.
Forth, the information that he of
course thinks will be favorable
to his client not only in the
courtroom but in the Court of
public opinion as soon as possible.
So I think it will be interesting
to see what she has told police,
what she officially told police
as part of this investigation,
and then of course what she possibly
might be willing to test testify
to should this case one day make
it into a courtroom. Of course,
that could be months or even years off.
So what's next?
What's next is that beard now is out on bond.
As we know he will have a
court date in early January.
But again,
what people need to understand is
that this is not something that is
going to probably resolve itself
quickly once you have a case filed
against you and once you are in
the criminal justice system.
Again, it can take months,
even years in some cases for there to
be a resolution to a criminal case.
And
these are serious, a serious
charge that he's facing,
in fact, a third degree felony. Yeah.
All right, Tony. Thank you. You bet.
Well, situations at home violent
situations on occasion can be
difficult and dangerous. Remember,
there's help available if you need it.
The national Domestic violence
hotline can take any questions
you might have anytime of the day,
any day of the week,
1-800-799-7233. You can also chat with
a specialist online at thehotline.org.