After 40 year old Yong Chen was convicted and sentenced, he lost his endowed faculty position that is funded by Congressman Bill Flores of Bryan and Flores’s wife.
Chen was found guilty by a Brazos County district court jury after more than four hours of deliberation on Thursday. The jury of six men and six women convicted Chen of a class A misdemeanor, not a felony family violence charge that prosecutors sought.
Chen was arrested in August 2013 after his wife told College Station police he choked her. During two days of trial testimony, the woman said she started the incident and Chen said he was defending himself.
The jury also heard about allegations involving the couple in Boston, where she went to a women’s shelter…and in Atlanta, where she left to stay with family in Houston. The jury was told those incidents resulted in no convictions.
The jury was not involved in deciding Chen’s punishment. Lawyers involved in the trial announced a sentencing agreement Friday morning that was modified by district judge Steve Smith.
Chen was placed on probation with several conditions to avoid serving ten months in the county jail.
That includes Chen serving 30 consecutive days behind bars after the end of the spring semester at A&M. According to the judge, he did not want Chen’s students at the Mays Business School to be punished.
Before going to jail, Chen will be allowed to go to China to visit his ailing parents. The judge said Chen, who was allowed to visit China on business since he was indicted, has to return on or before April 29.
While Chen is on probation, through January of 2018, he has to complete a batterer’s intervention program, perform 80 hours of community service, and pay a fine of $1,500 dollars and a $100 dollar family violence fee that collected for the state.
Chen also agreed to waive his right to appeal his conviction and sentence. And his criminal record will include a finding of committing family violence.
If the jury had found Chen guilty of the felony as indicted, he faced up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 dollars.
From his arrest through his sentencing, Chen was out of jail on bond that included no conditions to stay away from his wife.
Dr. Chen, who has taught at the Mays Business School since 2012, became tenured in 2014.
Earlier this year, Chen was named the Gina and William H. Flores ’76 Endowed Professor in Finance. Congressman Flores issued the following statement regarding that position:
“Gina and I are proud to support investments in higher education at Texas A&M University and other Texas educational institutions. We believe that the recipients of our support to these institutions should reflect our values. We recently learned, however, that the holder of the Professorship that we originally endowed to the Mays Business School in 2002 was convicted of abusing his spouse. Gina and I are appalled by his actions and do not believe that he is deserving of the benefits from our endowment. Accordingly, we have asked Texas A&M and the Mays Business School to transfer the Professorship to a more deserving faculty member. While we have historically not had a role in awarding the endowment, we have requested that Mays Business School consider our values when picking the next recipient of our Professorship. Despite the actions and conviction of this professor, we continue to believe that Texas A&M is a world-class Tier 1 research and teaching institution that produces 21st Century solutions for our communities, our state and our nation.”