NY wife-beat rap for Dallas soccer team’s CEO
By Jamie Schram (New York Post)A birthday weekend in New York turned ugly for the hulking CEO of Dallas’ professional soccer team when he was busted for allegedly beating and suffocating his wife in their luxury hotel room, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
Hal Douglas Quinn, head of the Major League Soccer club FC Dallas, allegedly attacked Elizabeth Quinn, 46, after an argument at around 2:45 p.m. Saturday at The Alex Hotel on East 45th Street, the sources said.
“It was his 50th birthday party Friday night. We had a lovely night, and unfortunately things went wrong,” Elizabeth told The Post, adding that they plan to stay together. They have two small children.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Quinn allegedly pummeled his much-smaller wife’s face and body, choked her with both hands, and held a pillow over her face until she passed out, the sources said.
Quinn was arrested at 4 p.m. on charges of assault and strangulation, and his wife was treated by paramedics at the scene for injuries to her face, arm, legs and eye, which was swollen shut, the sources said.
She was then taken to New York Hospital.
Quinn was released on $20,000 bail following his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Elizabeth did not provide cops with a motive for the alleged assault, according to the sources said.
“In these cases, which are usually ‘he said, she said,’ there is often another side to the story, and there certainly is one here,” Hal Quinn’s lawyers said in a statement.
Quinn, who lives in Dallas, was in town “with friends just visiting,” said his lawyer, Alan Futerfas.
A spokeswoman for FC Dallas did not immediately comment.
Quinn is due back in court tomorrow.
The sports executive was a managing director and senior vice president of NFL International for 14 years before he became president of Soccer United Marketing in 2004.
FC Dallas hired him in 2010 and attracted its biggest crowd ever last July, according to a report.
But while attendance is up, the team itself isn’t doing so well.
FC Dallas did not make the MLS playoffs this season, finishing sixth in the Western Conference.
