Shauna Farnell
January 23, 2005
VAIL - Tanner Hall, one of the most recognized names in the sport of freeskiing, was arrested early Saturday morning at Fubar in Vail Village and charged with disorderly conduct, police said.
Hall and his teammate Mikael Deschenaux, both 21, Chris Biollo and another man whose identity can't be disclosed because he's in protective custody were arrested around 2 a.m. after a skirmish with bouncers at the club, police said.
'They were fighting with the doormen,' said Sgt. Mike Knox of the Vail Police Department. 'From what I understand, they were all very arrogant with the officers and not very nice.'
Hall and dozens of the world's best freeskiers were in town all weekend for the U.S. Freeskiing Open at Vail.
After Hall won the men's superpipe contest Sunday, he expressed remorse regarding the Fubar incident.
'Some bouncers didn't like who I was. They didn't like me in their club,' Hall said. 'It's hard when you're a kid that's 21 years old who everyone's looking at. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm not happy about this. To all my fans and to everybody in Vail, I'm very sorry you had to hear about that. I'm very embarrassed.'
Fubar employee Eddie Schoenbein was working at the bar Friday night and witnessed the incident.
'I was on the right side of the bar, and Tanner came up. He seemed like he was pretty drunk,' Schoenbein said. 'He started yelling off stupid stuff about rap. Our manager said, 'We're done playing music.' He started saying, 'Do you know who I am?' and that kind of thing. We knew who he was right away, and we were extremely polite to him. It kind of went from there. He started poking our manager, and his buddy was about to hit someone with a bottle. We restrained them because they were violent.'
Schoenbein said Fubar staff called the police, who arrived, handcuffed Hall and his friends, one of whom was also charged with resisting arrest, and took them away. Schoenbein said Hall is not banned from his establishment and is welcome back under the condition that he 'comes for the right reasons - to have a good time' and stays under control.
Hall said he would like to write an apology letter to the Vail Daily and that Saturday's incident was the first time he's ever been arrested.
'I didn't come to Vail to express that show of emotions and that kind of attitude,' Hall said. 'I'm very sorry. It wasn't a good night. I'm not a kid that goes to jail and gets arrested. I'd never been arrested, then (Saturday), I found myself in jail. I was like, 'Whoa.' It was a hard lesson.'
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