Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley last month aimed a rifle at a couple and their teenage daughter in an SUV outside his Plymouth home, where a large stash of marijuana and other guns were seized by police, according to charges filed Thursday.
Beasley, 23, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with drug possession and threats of violence. Montana Yao, an Instagram model and the mother of their 1½-year-old son, was charged with a felony drug count.
Both were charged by summons and not immediately available to respond to the allegations. Defense attorneys Steve Haney and Ryan Pacyga issued a statement saying that “we are cooperating with the law enforcement investigation and will carefully review the discovery in the coming days.”
A statement from Timberwolves management read, “We take these allegations seriously and will let the legal process run its course.”
Plymouth Police Chief Michael Goldstein said there is an investigation underway by county Child Protection Services, and he believes the son has not been removed from the home. In the meantime, Beasley is due in court on Nov. 19. Yao’s first appearance is set for Dec. 29.
The charges come one day after Wolves executive vice president Sachin Gupta addressed the team’s salary-cap situation and said there should be room to sign Beasley, who is a restricted free agent. He averaged 20.7 points in 14 games with the Wolves this past season after being acquired in a trade from Denver.
Joe Tamburino, a longtime Twin Cities defense attorney not involved in the case, said that “if what the complaint says is true, Mr. Beasley caught a huge break by not being charged with three counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. … His charges are minor compared to what they could have charged him with.”
According to the charges against Beasley and Yao:
A couple was on the annual Parade of Homes tour on Sept. 26 with their daughter and pulled up in an SUV to the home Beasley and Yao rent but saw it was roped off. While they were pulled over to look up another home to visit, Beasley tapped on the vehicle’s window and pointed a rifle at them and shouted an expletive while telling them to get off his property.
Beasley continued to train his “all-black assault rifle with a forehand grip” and a scope at the SUV as it drove away, the criminal complaint read.
A police searched of the home turned up a 12-gauge shotgun, a handgun and an automatic rifle that matched the description given by the couple in the SUV. The officers also tended to the son of Beasley and Yao in the home.
Officers detected an overwhelming odor of marijuana and soon located more than 1¾ pounds of the drug in the basement living room and main floor office. Next to the stash was a notebook with rules for smoking the drug in the house.
Police seized video recordings from interior surveillance cameras that showed Beasley grabbing a rifle and making “sounds like shots were being fired.” He then went outside about the time the family in the SUV was confronted.
Later that afternoon, Beasley appeared on video “yelling, laughing and making shots fired sounds with his friends,” the charges read. Beasley was arrested that same day and later released. Yao has yet to be arrested.
Yao, 23, told officers that all of the leafy marijuana belonged to her and that she bought it from a medical marijuana outlet. However, she could not say where the purchase was made or produce proof of the transaction. Possessing marijuana in its original leafy form in Minnesota is illegal.
The 6,600-square-foot home Beasley and Yao occupy sits on a bluff off Mooney Lake and includes an indoor basketball court. The builder recently had it on the market for $2.2 million.
Star Tribune staff writer Chris Hine contributed to this report.
