Paul Qui, Season 9 winner of Top Chef and one of the most esteemed chefs in Texas, was arrested over the weekend for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend and detaining her and her young son in his apartment. Qui owns two restaurants in Austin, including one that GQ called the best new restaurant in the country, and he won a James Beard Award in 2012. According to the local police reports, here’s what happened:
Police responded to Qui’s apartment in East Austin just before 8 a.m. after receiving a call from Qui’s friend who said “his friend and his girlfriend were fighting” in the apartment. When officers arrived, they heard screaming and yelling coming from the apartment before the door was opened.
The details after the police entered the apartment to investigate the disturbance only get more horrifying:
When Qui, 31, opened the door, officers noted he had “blood all over his face, arms, legs and clothing.” Officers noticed the woman inside the apartment was crying and clutching a small child, according to the affidavit. Officers reported the apartment was in disarray with furniture and glass broken—blood was also found smeared on the walls and the floor of the apartment, according to the affidavit.
The events that led up to the police presence at Qui’s apartment are also chaotic. According to his girlfriend, she was woken up when Qui and some friends came home high and drunk after a night out in Austin. After she joined the group, he became jealous and accused his friends of flirting with his girlfriend. Allegedly, that led to him throwing her against the walls and around the room and forcibly detaining both her and her son in the apartment until police arrived.
In a statement obtained by the New York Daily News, Qui dismissed the charges as “an argument with [his] girlfriend that had escalated beyond [his] control,” and he explained the detainment as an effort to wait for the police and tell his side of the story. His denial of all charges doesn’t mesh very well with this explanation, but that is what due process is for, and he did announce an intent to check into rehab in order “to take more time for my health and myself.” Qui faces two misdemeanor charges for the incident, and his restaurant announced it was closed Monday night but declined to offer any specific explanation.
https://twitter.com/QUIAustin/status/711951870948876288
(via KXAN)
