Former coach convicted of felony battery with beer bottle

May 1, 2013

A San Luis Obispo jury convicted former Cal Poly and Oakland Raiders coach Randy Hanson of felony battery, subjecting him to up to four years in prison. [Tribune]

Hason, a Cal Poly assistant football coach at the time, struck a man in the face with a beer bottle outside a Pismo Beach bar last summer, breaking his nose and causing a concussion. On Monday, the jury found him guilty of felony battery and misdemeanor assault.

But, the jurors found Hanson innocent of an assault with a deadly weapon charge that they reduced to the misdemeanor assault. The jury also rejected a crime enhancement that would have an increased Hanson’s sentence.

Hanson’s attorney Ilan Funke-Bilu said he will attempt to reduce the felony battery charge to a misdemeanor at the June 10 sentencing hearing. Funke-Bilu said Hanson, 45, “feels so strongly about his innocence.”

“I think this case at the very worst has always been a misdemeanor,” Funke-Bilu said.

On August 3, 2012, Cal Poly head coach Tim Walsh asked Hanson to help entertain boosters at Mr. Rick’s in Avila Beach. The boosters requested Hanson’s company because of his ties to the Raiders.

That night, a Mr. Rick’s patron, James Kelsey, 52, helped Hanson secure a limousine to Pismo Beach. Kelsey joined Hanson and the boosters in the limo at the coach’s request.

After stopping at Harry’s Night Club and Beach Bar in Pismo Beach, Kelsey said he returned to the limo, where he found Hanson passed out inside. Kelsey said he nudged Hanson to move over, and the coach hit him in the face with the beer bottle.

Kelsey said the incident was unprovoked, but Hanson said Kelsey became belligerent to him, saying that he was a “pussy” and was not a real Raider.

In 2009, Hanson was involved in an altercation with Raiders head coach Tom Cable that garnered national attention. Hanson said Cable broke his jaw after he threw him off a chair during a coach’s meeting.