DA: They thought, 'This guy needs a knuckle sandwich'
EUGENE, Ore. -- When the news first broke back in January, police said University of Oregon football player Rob Beard was beaten unconscious and hospitalized after coming to the aid of one of his teammates in a street brawl near campus was the victim.
A witness saw the Jan. 24 fracass and shared what he saw with KVAL News, and police rounded up two men in short order and charged them with assault.
Then the story started to twist: police arrested a teammate and said he went after a man in what police described as retaliation for the attack that put Beard in the hospital.
Beard would later be charged with thowing a 90-pound 19-year-old to the ground that night, an arrest that came amidst a flurry of bad news for the Duck football program that put a furrow-browed Chip Kelly on ESPN to answer questions about his team's troubles.
On Friday, the tale took another turn: Beard pleaded guilty to lesser charges, as did the two men -- Kirby Hawkins and Maurice Peterson -- accused of knocking Beard to the ground and kicking him into unconsciousness.
"This is sort of a consequence of several guys being extremely intoxicated," District Attorney Alex Gardner said Friday, "and frankly acting like idiots."
The fight happened near 17th and Patterson. Eugene police inititally told KVAL News that Beard was kicked repeatedly in the head while he was on the ground after he came to the defense of another player, Mike Bowlin.
But as investigators pieced together what happened, a different story emerged.
"There were several drunk men moving from party to party in the University area, sometimes being ejected from the parties," Gardner said. "Then they stumbled into this area and they're sort of generating controversy as we go. There was a crowd gathering around them. Peterson and Hawkins kind of stumble on to that.
"Peterson and Hawkins were minding their own business and then they see this guy come up who was obviously drunk and he throws their friend on the ground," Gardner said. "She's a 90-pound young woman who was doing nothing inappropriate."
On Friday, a judge sentenced Peterson and Hawkins to 18 months probation for what happened next.
"I just want to say I'm sorry," Peterson told the court. "I appreciate the opportunity you've given me."
Gardner said after Beard knocked the woman to the ground, Hawkins and Peterson "reacted as many young men have in this circumstance. They thought, 'This guy needs a knuckle sandwich. And Mr. Beard got one.
"The problem is," the district attorney explained, "Mr. Beard's injuries were very severe."
Prosecutors tried to take the situation -- and Beard's injuries -- into account. Hawkins and Peterson will have to repay $40,000 of Beard's medical bills.
"From their perspective, they were doing something that was appropriate and justified," Gardner said. "If you sort of look at the behavior that we value in the country, they were acting like a couple of gallant young men."
That one punch and one kick put Beard in the hospital. Now recovered, he pleaded guilty to harrassment on Friday and was sentenced to one year of probation.
And given the severity of Beard's injuries, proseuctors could have thrown the book at Hawkins and Peterson.
"What they were charged with was assault two, which is a Measure 11 and carries a sentence of 70 months," Gardner said.
"Our job is to do our best to do the right thing, and in this case sending these two guys to prison for 70 months was clearly not the right thing," he said. "We're trying to recognize these are two decent young guys who did something stupid, and we don't want to mar their records permanently."
And as of Friday afternoon, the UO athletic department told KVAL News that Beard was still a member of the Duck football team.
