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Soccer Star Hope Solo Pleads Guilty To DWI For Passing Out Behind Wheel With Kids In Car
Hope Solo, aka Hope Stevens, has pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated after she was discovered passed out at the wheel with her toddler twins in the car at a Walmart.
Olympic gold medalist and former U.S. soccer player Hope Solo has pleaded guilty to a DWI after being found passed out behind the wheel at a Walmart earlier this year.
Solo, whose married name is Hope Stevens, pleaded guilty to driving while impaired on Monday, The New York Times reports.
"Easily the worst mistake of my life," Solo wrote in a statement posted to her Instagam on Monday evening. "I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become."
The 40-year-old former goalie was then given an active service of 30 days and a suspended sentence of 24 months. She has also been ordered to pay $2,500 in fines and a $600 fee to cover the cost of lab tests in her case, The New York Post reports. Her time in an in-patient rehabilitation center was credited as her 30-day sentence. She surrendered her driver’s license and will undergo a substance abuse assessment. With her plea, her resisting arrest and child abuse charges were voluntarily dismissed, The Winston Salem Journal reports.
Solo was arrested on March 31 after being found slumped behind the wheel of a car, with her 2-year-old twins in the backseat. The car had been running for more than an hour while parked at Winston-Salem, North Carolina Walmart parking lot. Witnesses had called the police.
When police arrived to the lot, she refused a field sobriety test and breathalyzer, Yahoo! Sports reports. A blood test showed that she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24, which is three times the legal limit, prosecutors had said.
“The upside of making a mistake this big is that hard lessons are learned quickly,” the soccer star said in her statement. "Learning these lessons has been difficult, and at times, very painful.”
She thanked her fans, her “beautifully strong husband,” and her mom for their support. Solo is married to former NFL player Jerramy Steven.
This was not the athlete’s first brush with the law. Solo was also arrested for the alleged domestic assault of two family relatives outside of Seattle back in 2014. Solo pleaded not guilty and the charges were dropped against her in 2018, PEOPLE previously reported.
