UT Baseball: Garrido suspended after drunken-driving charge

[bluedogok]

Looks like Augie is in some trouble.....


Statesman.com - Garrido suspended after drunken-driving charge (http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/longhorns/entries/2009/01/17/garrido_suspend.html)
aturday, January 17, 2009, 12:08 PM

Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido was charged with drunken driving early today and has been suspended indefinitely by the university.

The traffic stop occurred in the 500 block of Baylor Street west of downtown Austin shortly before 1 a.m.

The university said that Garrido would be suspended with pay until further information can be gathered.

“This is a difficult and regrettable situation that we are taking very seriously,” Texas athletics director DeLoss Dodds said in a statement. “I spoke with Coach Garrido and he’s devastated and realizes he made a serious mistake. He deeply regrets putting the university in this position and will act quickly to do what’s right.”

[SOONER STEAKER]

Augie really screwed up bigtime. UT has got to make an example of him and suspend him for the entire season or let him go.

Kinda ashame that (2) (Larry Cochell) of the best coaches in Big 12 history might both go out of coaching with a black eye.

Since I'm a Sooner fan I say, "Augie, YOUR FIRED." Credit that line to Donald Trump

[bluedogok]

He's 69 years old...it wouldn't surprise me to see him "retire"

Here's an update to the story above....


Statesman.com - Garrido suspended after drunken-driving charge (http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/longhorns/entries/2009/01/17/garrido_suspend.html)
Saturday, January 17, 2009, 04:04 PM

Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido was charged with drunken driving early today and has been suspended indefinitely by the university.

The traffic stop occurred in the 500 block of Baylor Street west of downtown Austin shortly before 1 a.m.

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/shared-blogs/austin/longhorns/upload/2009/01/garrido_suspend/garridosm.jpg

Austin police Cmdr. Donald Baker said this afternoon that Garrido told officers that he had been at Eddie V’s on East Fifth Street and J. Blacks Feel Good Lounge on West Sixth Street prior to the arrest.

Garrido was driving a Porsche Cayenne west on Sixth Street without headlights when Officer Robert Gilbert, who works in the police DWI enforcement team, noticed him, Baker said.

Baker said Gilbert initiated a traffic stop and that Garrido got out of the car as he approached. He said that Gilbert noticed the smell of alcohol and ruled that Garrido was impaired after administering a field sobriety test.

Baker said officers told him that Garrido refused to provide a breath or blood test.

The university said that Garrido would be suspended with pay until further information can be gathered.

“This is a difficult and regrettable situation that we are taking very seriously,” Texas athletics director DeLoss Dodds said in a statement. “I spoke with Coach Garrido and he’s devastated and realizes he made a serious mistake. He deeply regrets putting the university in this position and will act quickly to do what’s right.”

Garrido is Division I’s all-time winningest college baseball coach, with a record of 1,668-777-8 over 40 years. He has won five national titles, including two in his 12 seasons at Texas.

Garrido recently received a $160,000 raise by the UT System Board of Regents, taking his salary to $800,000 for this season. The contract calls for a $50,000 annual raise, taking his salary to $1 million by September 2012.

The contract stipulates that should Garrido be dismissed from his job, he would receive $300,000 for each year left on the contract. But that provision is voided if he were to be terminated for cause under the university’s “standard of conduct” provisions.

[SOONER STEAKER]

I hope Augie paid cash for that Porshe. I wonder if Augie will use Roger Clemens lawyer to get him out of trouble.

[Flagstaffsooner]

He and Eddie can go driving together.

[85Sooner]

Audie is a Damn nice guy and is very Switzeresque in that, what you see is what you get. I hope the best for him.

[bluedogok]

Well, the "punishment" came down.....


Statesman.com - Garrido will be suspended for four games (http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/longhorns/entries/2009/01/23/garrido_will_be.html)
Friday, January 23, 2009, 02:03 PM

Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido apologized this afternoon in the wake of his drunken-driving arrest and then announced that a term for suspension has been set. He will miss the first four games of the season.

Texas athletics director DeLoss Dodds said he stands behind Garrido. No other terms of the suspension were disclosed, and Garrido, citing the pending legal case, did not take questions.

“I know he will do all the right things, and I know he will do it with class. I know he’ll do it with integrity, and I know he will do it with strength,” Dodds said.

Garrido was stopped early Saturday by Austin police who said that he was driving without headlights. After failing a field sobriety test, he was charged with suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

“I made a serious mistake,” Garrido said. “I drank alcohol. I got behind the wheel of a car, and that’s a bad decision — a real bad decision. … I have violated, on my own with my decision, the mission of the university. I am solely responsible for that. This is not a reflection of the university.”

“I sincerely apologize,” the coach said. “It’s heartfelt. It’s honest.”

Garrido, who ranks as the winningest baseball coach in NCAA Division I history, noted that overcoming crisis and adversity is a key part of his mantra. “It’s what I teach the players,” he said, “and now I’m living it.”

The Longhorns open the season Feb. 20. Garrido will miss four games against the University of Illinois-Chicago.

“This has been a tough week for all of us in athletics and a devastating week for coach,” Dodds said. “He made a mistake. It’s a serious mistake. He’s solely accountable for it.”

Dodds noted that it wasn’t first rough time he’d been through with Garrido, alluding to the early seasons in Garrido’s 13-year tenure at Texas before he returned the Longhorns to national prominence.

“I stood by him then,” Dodds said. “I stand by him today.”

[setem]

As much as I dislike UT Garrido is one of the best coaches out there! He get 110% out of every single one of his players. He is a master motivator and a student of baseball and life in general. That ESPN biography they did on him was fantastic!

People make mistakes and I for one think he deserves another chance.

[SoonersEnFuego]

Soggy Dorito

[OU1988]

Wow, 4 whole games in a long baseball season. Not much of a punishment.

[bluedogok]

This was in today's paper....


Statesman.com - Coach Augie Garrido plans to plead guilty (http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/01/31/0131augie.html)
He will probably be sentenced at a later date.

By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, January 30, 2009

University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido plans to plead guilty to drunken driving Monday but will probably be sentenced at a later date, his attorney and a judge handling the case said Friday.

Travis County Court-at-Law Judge Elisabeth Earle said prosecutors approached her Thursday afternoon with a request to allow Garrido to enter a plea in her court.

Earle said she is not familiar with the terms of any agreement Garrido has reached with prosecutors. Attorney Roy Minton, who is representing Garrido, said the details are still being worked out.

"He wanted to go ahead and admit what he was involved in and get it behind him," Minton said. "That has been his attitude from the first minute."

Michael Burnett, an attorney working with Minton, said Garrido has asked for no special treatment and hasn't received any.

A prosecutor handling the case could not be reached for comment.

Austin police have said Garrido was driving a Porsche Cayenne west on Sixth Street at about 1 a.m. Jan. 17 when an officer in the department's DWI enforcement team noticed the car's headlights were not on.

After a sobriety test, Garrido told the officer he had five glasses of wine and was intoxicated, police have said.

Garrido has since issued a public apology, calling his actions a "serious mistake," and said that he would learn from what happened.

UT officials have suspended Garrido for the first four games of the upcoming season.

Earle said that defendants in drunken driving cases typically do not enter guilty pleas within a couple of weeks of their arrest and that it can take up to a year or more for such cases to make it through the court system.

"It shows someone is stepping up and wanting to take responsibility," she said.