Accused

What was the label Mr. Ferguson used with you?” she asked.
“The description Mr. Ferguson used was a rear choke.”
“And in regards to Mr. Szallai… how did he describe it?”
“A rear naked choke.”
On cross-examination, Suder began by playing back the recording that Ramirez made of his interview with Beau, who never used the phrase “rear choke.”
“Officer Ramirez, isn’t it true, contrary to what you just testified to, that Beau Ferguson never told you that Tommy Harris had the man in a rear choke?”
“That’s true,” Ramirez admitted.
“Throughout the entire time at the scene, Mr. Ferguson repeatedly referred to the standing position as a bear hug?”
“That’s correct.”

While it was within his constitutional rights, by taking the Fifth Beau had created the impression that he—and, by extension, Tommy—had something to hide. This was a blow to Tommy, made worse by the fact that he didn’t see it coming. He only found out that Beau had taken the Fifth when Beau’s lawyer informed Suder. “Tommy was shocked,” a family friend present at the courthouse that day says. “It was stunning. Beau created the appearance that they had done something wrong.”

But when Bolin called Beau Ferguson, he exercised his right not to incriminate himself as protected by the Fifth Amendment. Working with his lawyer, Beau took this legal tact for several reasons. His original statement to Officer Pavlock contained false information because it was based on assumption, not fact. By sending texts to Lauren, he opened himself to allegations of witness tampering. More to the point, since he participated in the physical altercation, he too was vulnerable to an indictment. Finally, he may have had past legal woes himself. Perhaps he had served those two years in a Thai prison he liked to tell people about.

Beau was also wrong in asserting that Tommy had taken the man down. As Beau well knew—because he was in the parking lot by then—Tommy was unable to subdue the man until he got help. From Beau. It would never be clear why Beau gave police this initial—and inaccurate—information. As it turned out, it would later taint how the police and others viewed Tommy, his role in what transpired, and whether he was telling the truth.

Just as Beau reached them, the man pulled free. Re-positioning himself but still behind the man, Tommy embraced him in a bear hug, his arms wrapped around the man’s chest. As the man put up a fierce battle, Beau decided the only way to contain him was to take him to the ground.
“Tommy, I’m going to get his leg,” Beau said.

During the scuffle, John had already hurried inside and told Beau’s girlfriend Jessica to call 911 on her cell phone. At 1:47 a.m., she reached the 911 operator, as John dashed back to the parking lot.

run my business for me,” she said later. “Cheap suit, bald head.”

This is the general manager of Studio 59,” he said. “I had a customer that was threatening the bartenders, and then when one of my bartenders went to leave, they tried to accost her in the parking lot. [I have with me] an HPD officer…. The guy got physical and we’re holding him right now in the parking lot.”

Beau was not overly worried. In past kickboxing matches, he had seen his opponent become so overexcited that he passed out temporarily, even making a snoring noise while he was blacked out, only to regain consciousness after 10 to 20 seconds.

But a critical detail in Beau’s description—the customer had not accosted Lauren in the parking lot—was wrong. In fact, by the time Beau first witnessed the altercation, Lauren was alrea