LSU women’s basketball assistant Tony Perotti arrested

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Lady Tiger assistant jailed after Jan. 12 bar incident

By CODY WORSHAM
Tiger Rag Editor

Baton Rouge Police arrested LSU women’s basketball assistant coach Tony Perotti last weekend after an incident at a downtown bar, according to police records.

Police booked Perotti into parish prison Jan. 12 on one charge of disturbing the peace by public intoxication and two charges of remaining after being forbidden. Perotti was bonded out of prison later that Saturday, a day before the Lady Tigers defeated Mississippi State 62-42 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

According to the report, officers confronted Perotti outside of City Bar, located at 333 Third Street in downtown Baton Rouge, at approximately 2 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 12. A security guard at the bar complained to police that Perotti had “refused to leave” the premises after being “kicked out of the bar for inappropriate behavior.” The guard also informed police that Perotti “stood by and cursed” at the guards, despite being told to leave multiple times.

The officer advised Perotti - who “appeared intoxicated by both stature and speech” - to leave the area, as he was causing a disturbance, the report says. Perotti refused, saying he was waiting on his friends who had remained inside and adding, according to the report, “the last time he checked this was a free [c]ountry and [he] can stand where ever [sic] and say what ever [sic] he wanted.”

According the report, the officer again ordered Perotti to leave, but instead, Perotti moved “fifteen feet away, turned around and continued to cause a disturbance.” The report says Perotti continued to curse at the guards and refused to leave the area.

The officers then told Perotti he was under arrest, cuffed him, placed him in the back of a police car, and transported him to parish prison, booking him on the above charges. Later, Perotti admitted to officers “he was wrong for not leaving and causing a disturbance but felt he was treated wrong” by City Bar’s security guards, the report says.

Perotti, 36, is in his second year as an assistant under Lady Tiger head coach Nikki Caldwell, whom he followed to Baton Rouge after three seasons as an assistant at UCLA.

LSU associate sports information director Bill Martin issued the following statement: “We were made aware that there were allegations made against Tony Perotti, but we are not going to comment on this at the time since it is an ongoing legal matter.”

City Bar management said they were looking further into the nature of the “inappropriate behavior” which led to Perotti’s expulsion from the bar.

“Our first priority is customer safety,” said Brandon Hargrave, an owner at the bar.

Cody Worsham is the editor of Tiger Rag and a graduate of LSU journalism. You can reach him by e-mail at cody@tigerrag.com.