Kawn Beyoud

[May 31st, 2006] One week, you're featured in WW; the next, you're nominated as a Rogue of the Week.

That's the story arc for Spun DJ Academy (Local Cut, WW, March 29, 2006), but with a big twist: The Rogue turns out to be the Portland man who nominated the academy for Rogue-dom, Kawn Beyoud .

Beyoud emailed the Spun DJ and said he wanted to take all its courses in a package deal. Academy co-founder Brandon Neustel says he repeatedly recommended that Beyoud start off with one course before making that big a commitment.

But on Sunday, March 26, Beyoud wrote two checks totaling $3,450 for a full program of 18 classes. And Neustel let him borrow two turntables, a mixer and headphones to get started.

The next day, Beyoud says he tried to contact Neustel to cancel the deal within its three-day grace period but claims he could not reach the academy via telephone or email. He also said no one was at the office when he visited.

But Neustel showed WW an email proving he responded on Tuesday, March 28, and asked Beyoud to stop by the following evening.

That turned out to be the wrong move, Neustel says.

Neustel claims Beyoud arrived and disrupted an academy tour, grabbed him by his collar and lunged at Jenna Soard, the academy's director of operations. Neustel returned one of Beyoud's checks, for $1,725, and gave him a partial refund of the other $1,725 check (which had already been cashed), minus $400 in fees.

When the Rogue desk went back to Beyoud to inquire about his alleged tantrum, he declined comment and also refused to respond to other questions about returning the DJ equipment.

The moral of the story: Please keep the Rogue nominations coming, but make sure you're sending them in with clean hands.