Texas suspends basketball coach Chris Beard after arrest for domestic assault

Texas men’s basketball coach Chris Beard has been suspended indefinitely without pay following his arrest for assault after a woman told Austin police he had strangled her. Beard was arrested by the Austin Police Department and booked in the Travis County Jail at 4:18 a.m. Monday. Beard, 49, faces a third-degree charge of assault against a family member by impeding breathing or circulation. Conviction on a third-degree felony in Texas carries a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years. In its statement announcing the suspension, the University said it “takes matters of interpersonal violence involving members of its community seriously” and that “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.”

Associate head coach Rodney Terry will serve as acting coach. His first game in that capacity came at home Monday night against Rice. The Austin police received a 911 call at 12:15 a.m. Monday for a disturbance in the 1900 block of Vista Lane in Austin's Tarrytown neighborhood, where Beard lives. Responding officers located a woman who stated she had been assaulted and strangled by Beard. According to the arrest affidavit, the woman told a responding APD officer they had been “upset” with each other for a couple days and that their verbal altercation turned physical that night after Beard returned home from work. The woman said she grew frustrated, took Beard’s reading glasses and broke them during a heated conversation. The woman said Beard “snapped on me and became super violent” about 10 to 15 minutes later in their master bedroom and “choked me, threw me off the bed, bit me,” in addition to bruising her leg, throwing her around and “going nuts.”