Texas fires Beard in the middle of domestic violence charge
Texas head men’s basketball coach Chris Beard was fired Thursday, less than one month after the school suspended him without pay following his arrest on a domestic family violence charge.Associate head coach Rodney Terry, who has been the acting head coach because Beard’s suspension, will remain in charge the remainder of the season.Longhorns athletic director Chris Del Conte launched a declaration Thursday afternoon announcing the decision. “The University of Texas has parted ways with Chris Beard,”he said.
“This has been a difficult situation that we have actually been diligently working through. Today I informed Mr. Beard of our decision to terminate him efficient immediately.”The university’s vice president of legal affairs, Jim Davis, composed in a letter
to Beard’s lawyer, Perry Minton, that Beard engaged in “inappropriate habits that makes him unsuited to serve as head coach at our university.”Whether district attorneys continue with the case does not figure out whether Beard engaged in conduct unbecoming of the school, Davis wrote.Beard was apprehended on the early morning of Dec. 12 after his fiancée, Randi Trew, informed officers
he choked her from behind, bit her and hit her when the two got in an argument. Trew launched a declaration on Dec. 23 in which she rejected telling cops Beard choked her. “Chris did not strangle me, and I told that to law enforcement that evening,”Trew stated in her declaration.”Chris has actually stated that he was acting in self-defense, and I do not refute that. I do not believe Chris was attempting to intentionally hurt me in any way. “< img src="https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/photo/2023/0104/r1113640_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center"
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1 Associated Trew’s statement did not address why she made the emergency call or other information in the cops report, such as bite marks and abrasions on her face and telling officers that she could not breathe for about 5 seconds.The Travis County
District Attorney’s office released a statement to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf on Thursday morning, hours before Beard was fired.”The matter is still under evaluation, and
our district attorneys are assessing all of the proof, consisting of recent declarations and all proof collected by police,”the statement said.” Our office takes all allegations of domestic violence seriously; in each case, we are dedicated to resolving the special challenges provided.”Minton said in a statement that Beard is”crushed “by the news and declared that the university went on with the firing without asking Beard or Trew any questions.” I am worried that the University of Texas has made a horrible decision against the interest of the University
, based on Twitter feeds and editorials– and not the realities concerning a truly innocent man,”Minton said.”The University has broken their agreement with the coach and we are ravaged.”Minton has stated the coach is innocent and pointed to Trew’s declaration in a letter sent early Thursday to the university, in which Minton pushed the school to keep Beard.”Coach Beard has refrained from doing anything to violate any arrangement of his agreement with the University of Texas,”Minton composed, including he expects the charges to be dropped.Minton’s letter also said Del Conte”has actually consistently reported to our team that he is particular that Chris Beard not did anything wrong– and is innocent.” It also said that Texas officials informed Beard to resign or be fired.The university stated Del Conte supported a”pause”of suspending Beard before firing him to see what truths might come out. That must not have actually been taken as a decision of the coach’s conduct, Davis stated.
“Your letter this morning reveals that Mr. Beard does not comprehend the significance of the behavior he knows he participated in, or the ensuing events that hinder his ability to effectively lead our program,”Davis composed in the school’s termination
letter.”This lack of self-awareness is yet another failure of judgement that makes Mr. Beard unsuited to function as a head coach at our university,”Davis wrote.Beard had actually been the head coach at Texas because 2021 after spending five seasons at Big 12 rival Texas Tech. In his lone complete season
in Austin, Beard went 22-12 before losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament.Texas was off to a 7-1 start before Beard’s arrest. Terry directed the Longhorns to 5 straight wins before
a home loss to Kansas State on Tuesday.Beard remained in the second season of a completely ensured, seven-year contract. His agreement includes a provision under which he can be fired for cause for conduct that consists of
being charged with a felony.The Associated Press added to this report.