A former top lobbyist was sentenced Tuesday to 100 hours of community service and ordered to relinquish his gun for a road rage incident at Cameron Village this summer.

Don Beason, once a contract lobbyist for companies such as BB&T, Wachovia Bank and Progress Energy, was found guilty in Wake County District Court of simple assault, a misdemeanor.

But Judge Joy Hamilton found him not guilty of assault by pointing a gun, a separate misdemeanor charge.

The incident happened just three days before federal prosecutors filed paperwork that unraveled Beason's lucrative lobbying career, which generated an annual income in the six figures.

On July 6, a Raleigh man pulled into a gas station, crossing a lane of traffic in front of Beason's Toyota pickup truck.

Jason Batten testified that Beason began honking repeatedly. Batten told the court that he walked up to the truck and saw Beason pull a Taurus .357 revolver from the floor and set it on the passenger seat.

The gun had five bullets in its six chambers, and it was still in its brown leather holster.

Beason said he honked briefly. He said Batten approached his truck, cursing angrily, and tried to open his passenger side door. He said Batten asked him to step outside to "teach you a lesson."

"With the man's demeanor, the look on his face and pulling on the door handle, I was concerned for my safety," he told the court.

Batten said he did not threaten Beason or try to open the door.

He said he walked away from the truck, memorized the license plate and called police. A big fan of the TV show "Cops," he even used police radio code -- "Victor" for "V" and "Edward" for "E" -- when talking with the 911 operator.

Batten and his fiancee, Chrisy Tellis, then surreptitiously followed Beason as he drove around town until Raleigh police showed up and detained him, even though the 911 operator told them to stay away from Beason's truck.

"I just figured they'd never catch him if I didn't follow him," Batten said.

The July 6 incident came at a particularly bad time for Beason. The next Monday, federal prosecutors noted in court filings that a lobbyist had given former House Speaker Jim Black a $500,000 cash loan.

When Beason was revealed as the lobbyist, his career effectively ended.

At trial Tuesday, prosecutors revealed that it was not the only incident involving Beason and a gun. A few weeks earlier, Beason got into a similar confrontation with an air-conditioning repairman at City Market in downtown Raleigh.

Steve Bass, general manager of Accurate Air, testified that Beason pointed a gun at him when he approached the truck on the morning of June 11 to ask him to move it so that he could install an air- conditioning unit on the roof of a nearby building.

Beason testified that he thought Bass was a "panhandler" at first and again was merely moving the gun to make it more convenient in case he needed to use it to protect himself.

Bass said he put his hands up and walked away.

"I got gone," he said.

After the trial, Beason's attorney, former state Rep. Bob Hensley, said that Beason has learned his lesson and does not want to carry a gun around anymore in his truck.

He has voluntarily surrendered his concealed weapon permit to the Wake County Sheriff's office, and Raleigh police will destroy the gun. Hensley said Beason will not appeal the case.

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