Judge allows Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley to serve 120 days for weapons conviction after basketball season ends

Malik Beasley was sentenced Tuesday to 120 days in the workhouse or home monitoring — to be served after the Timberwolves season is over — for aiming a rifle at a pregnant woman, her husband and their teenage daughter in an SUV outside his Plymouth home last fall.

Beasley is the Wolves' second-leading scorer at 20.5 points per game. He scored a game-high 30 points in Monday night's 127-122 loss in Dallas before appearing in court via teleconference Tuesday.

Hennepin County District Judge Hilary Caligiuri imposed strict conditions on the 24-year-old Beasley during his three years on probation that include no alcohol or illicit drug use, with testing to confirm compliance, and a lifetime ban on possessing firearms.

The NBA is reviewing the situation for possible discipline.

During the virtual proceeding, the judge dismissed a felony drug count against Beasley as part of his agreement in December to plead guilty to threats of violence with reckless disregard to risk. If Beasley successfully completes probation, his felony conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor. However, if he violates any of the terms, he could face harsher punishment.

Appearing on remote video, Beasley expressed regret for his actions and promised he has learned his lesson, but at the same time explained that "for several weeks leading up to this incident, day and night, countless vehicles … came up to my house bothering my family and myself. I was worried and in fear for the safety of us and … all this caused me to be frustrated in this situation."

Defense attorney Ryan Pacyga said afterward that some of the unwanted visitors were showing up because the $2 million home was listed on the annual Parade of Homes tour. Pacyga said people would "drive beyond the rope [barrier] right up to the house."

The attorney said Beasley tried to have his residence taken off the tour, but that never happened.

Parade of Homes spokeswoman Katie Elfstrom explained to the Star Tribune that the builder of Beasley's house, Creek Hill Custom Homes, contacted tour officials on Sept. 2 and requested to have the home removed from the list. However, Elfstrom said, the printed guide already had been distributed several weeks earlier.

And while there's "no way to take the home out of the guidebook," it was quickly labeled online as no longer available for touring, she said.

Beasley went on to say during sentencing that he "made some very bad mistakes. I regret it to this day. … I humbly apologize for my actions."

He also asked the judge, "How do I apologize face-to-face?" to the couple and their daughter.

Caligiuri directed him to write a letter and have it delivered by an intermediary, because he is banned from ever having contact with the family.

Caligiuri, taking into account that the regular season's conclusion is difficult to pin down because of disruptions related to COVID-19, set a tentative date of May 26 for Beasley to report to the workhouse or start electronic home monitoring.

Prosecutor Dan Allard said during sentencing that the delay in Beasley reporting for the workhouse or home monitoring is common for seasonal workers, and a snowplow operator would have been given the same consideration.

The family did not join in the proceeding but had a victim impact statement read on their behalf that noted the wife was nearly 37 weeks pregnant, and what Beasley did created a "danger to her and her unborn child. She spent the rest of her pregnancy on bed rest" and gave birth in late October.

The man and woman both struggled emotionally to the point that she lost an employment contract and he had to take a one-month leave from his duties as a financial executive. Their daughter has been "extra quiet since the incident," the statement noted, and has needed help to keep up with her schoolwork.

"Firearms are not toys," the family statement read. "Threats of physical violence do not solve problems."

On Sept. 26, the couple was on the homes tour with their 13-year-old daughter and pulled up in an SUV to the home Beasley and wife Montana 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 search of the home turned up a 12-gauge shotgun, a handgun and a rifle that matched the description given by the couple in the SUV. The officers also tended to the toddler son of Beasley and Yao in the home.

Officers detected an overwhelming odor of marijuana and soon located more than 1 ¾ pounds of the drug in the house. Yao, who filed for divorce from Beasley since the encounter with the family, allegedly told officers that all of the leafy marijuana belonged to her.