Texas basketball coach Chris Beard was suspended indefinitely by the school without pay Monday evening, hours after his arrest on a felony domestic violence charge.
Associate head coach Rodney Terry will serve as acting head coach for Monday night’s game against Rice, the school said.
“The University takes matters of interpersonal violence involving members of its community seriously,” Texas said in a statement. “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.”
Beard appeared at an afternoon bond hearing just hours before the No. 7-ranked Longhorns were scheduled to play the Owls.
The 49-year-old Beard was booked into the Travis County Jail at 4:18 a.m. local time and appeared before a magistrate judge wearing handcuffs and a gray and black striped inmate uniform 10 hours later, where bond was set at $10,000 and an order of protection established through Feb. 10, 2023.
He is charged with assault by strangulation/suffocation — family violence, a third-degree felony.
A department spokesperson said the arrest took place a few hours earlier at a home in Tarrytown, a historic neighborhood west of downtown Austin.
Beard’s nose and mouth were covered by a medically protective mask not visible when he appeared before the judge. Beard nodded his head and replied verbally when a judge informed Beard someone must enter his home to retrieve his belongings.
A judge ordered Beard to remain 200 yards away from the alleged victim “no matter where she is” and remain 200 yards away from the home where police responded; communicate only via text or phone and not in a “threatening or menacing” manner.
“The 200 yards stay-away conditions … that is in effect until the case is resolved,” the judge told Beard.
Austin-based attorney Perry Minton represents Beard and told the Austin American-Statesman that the coach is innocent.
“Coach Beard is 100 percent innocent of these charges. He should have never been arrested. The complainant wants him released immediately and all charges dismissed. It is truly inconceivable,” Minton said, according to the Statesman.
Granting bail is not a requirement in arrests made involving immediate “threat to life” circumstances in Texas, which is the description applied to the emergency dispatch on Monday. If convicted, Beard could face 10 years in prison.
The jail record lists Beard, who is in his second season as Texas head coach, as the subject for a call dispatch recorded at 2:07 a.m. to 911 for an urgent disturbance. Emergency dispatch calls are not public record or available to be released to media in the state of Texas without consent of the caller whose voice is heard on the call, or by order of court officials.
Arrest documents indicate the alleged victim in this case was not Beard’s ex-wife. The Statesman withdrew the identity of the alleged victim out of safety concerns for that person.
Beard and his former wife, Leslie, had three daughters before they split in 2016. All three daughters live primarily with their mother, the Statesman reported.
Beard spent five seasons at Texas Tech before taking over the Longhorns program. He led the Red Raiders to the national championship game in 2019, where they lost to Virginia, 85-77 in overtime.
Texas hired him in July 2021 and signed him to a seven-year, $35 million contract. He has a 29-13 record with the program.
According to USA Today, the school added a clause to his contract that “allows the university to terminate or suspend Beard with cause if “Any conduct (a) that the University administration reasonably determines is clearly unbecoming to a Head Coach and reflects poorly on the University, the Program, or The University of Texas System; or (b) resulting in a criminal charge being brought against Head Coach involving a felony, or any crime involving theft, dishonesty, or moral turpitude.”
The Longhorns (7-1) lost for the first time this season last week in New York when No. 17 Illinois pulled off an upset in overtime.
Texas entered Monday ranked No. 2 in last week’s top 25 poll, the highest position for the program since 2010, but the defeat dropped the Longhorns to No. 7 in the latest poll.
–Field Level Media
