Heartbreak News Now: The Texas Longhorns head coach and two players have announced their departure from the team.
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Chris Beard, the Texas basketball coach at the University of Texas in Austin, was fired a few weeks after he was accused of a third-degree felony related to family abuse, according to university officials on Thursday.
Chris Beard and the University of Texas have broken up, according to a statement from Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte. “We’ve been diligently working through this difficult situation.”
In response to a 911 call at a Tarrytown home early on December 12, Austin police detained Beard on suspicion of strangling his fiancée, Randi Trew. After posting a $10,000 bond, he was let out of Travis County Jail that afternoon.
On January 18, he is scheduled to appear in Travis County District Court. Travis County District Attorney’s office prosecutors stated on Thursday that they are examining the case to determine whether to proceed.
Beard was “crushed” by the news, according to his attorney, Perry Minton, who stated in a statement obtained by KXAN that the institution had “violated their agreement with the coach.”
“At the outset of Coach Beard’s suspension, The University promised they would conduct an independent investigation surrounding the allegations and make a decision regarding his employment only after they had done so,” Minton stated. “They proceeded to terminate Coach Beard without asking a single question of him or his fiancé.”
The legal team from UT-Austin wrote to Minton and offered to KXAN, UTBefore taking any action, the university “exercised thoughtful restraint to allow time for additional material facts to emerge,” according to Austin Vice President for Legal Affairs Jim Davis.
“Mr. Del Conte backed Mr. Beard and the initiative by endorsing this hold-out before taking any further action and by assuming his innocence while the situation developed. However, Davis stated that the support did not constitute an assessment of Mr. Beard’s behavior because that would have been too soon. “It is incorrect to interpret a manager’s backing of a staff member as an admission of guilt or innocence in a criminal case. We take into account his actual actions, not if certain behaviors also qualify as crimes. It makes little difference if the District Attorney charges Mr. Beard in the end whether he participated in behavior unworthy of our university’s head coach.”
According to the Austin American-Statesman, Beard’s contract included a standard provision that permits UT-Austin to suspend or fire him with cause for any behavior deemed “unbecoming” or that could result in a criminal charge “involving a felony, or any crime involving theft, dishonesty, or moral turpitude.”
The university does not have to pay Beard’s remaining contract because he was fired for reason, according to Brian Davis, senior communications manager at UT-Austin.
Beard was in the second year of a seven-year deal with Texas that included extra amenities and an annual salary of about $5 million. He was among the highest-paid staff members at the university.
A copy of the arrest report states Beard’s fiancée said in an affidavit that Orangebloods reporter Anwar Richardson tweeted that the two got into a fight after she took Beard’s glasses and smashed them. She claimed that after slapping her glasses off her face, he gave her a five-second choke hold with his arm coming from behind.
According to the affidavit, she informed the police that “he choked me, threw me off the bed, bit me, and bruised all over my leg.” With Beard’s arm wrapped over her neck, Trew informed the cops she was having trouble breathing. police said that there were obvious tooth marks and redness in a bite mark on her right forearm in the affidavit.
After the arrest, Beard was suspended by UT-Austin, his pay was withheld, and an internal inquiry was started.
“The In a statement, university authorities stated that they “take matters of interpersonal violence involving members of their community seriously.”
In a message posted on Twitter on December 23, Trew refuted the claim that Beard had strangled her and said that Beard had informed authorities that he was defending himself.
