Hope Solo pleads guilty to DWI, will serve 30 days, fined

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Former U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Hope Solo pleaded guilty Monday to driving while impaired, nearly four months after she was found passed out behind the wheel in North Carolina with her 2-year-old twins inside.

Solo was also charged with child abuse and resisting an officer in connection with the March 31 incident. Her attorney, Chris Clifton, said the two charges were voluntarily dismissed, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

A judge sentenced Saul, 40, of Roaring Gap, Allegany County, to 24 months of probation and 30 days of probation, according to a news release from the Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office. She was credited with 30 days of time spent in a rehabilitation facility. The judge also ordered Solo to pay $2,500 in fines and $600 in lab costs. She must also undergo drug testing and receive all recommended treatment.

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Roaring Gap is located approximately 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Winston-Salem.

In a statement released after the guilty plea, Solo said that while she was proud of motherhood and the way she and her husband handled their children during the pandemic, “it was incredibly difficult and I made a huge mistake.”

“Easily the worst mistake of my life. I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become,” she said. “The advantage of such a big mistake is that hard lessons are learned quickly. Learning these lessons was difficult and sometimes very painful.’

A police report said Solo was arrested in the parking lot of a mall in Winston-Salem. According to the arrest warrant, a passerby noticed Solo passed out while driving for more than an hour with the engine running and two children in the back seat.

The responding officer smelled alcohol and the warrant said Solo refused a field sobriety test.

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Solo was taken to court, where she refused to take a breathalyzer test, so police obtained a search warrant for a blood sample. Sol’s blood alcohol content was 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit. Tests also showed Solo was in possession of THC, according to the police report.

Solo was sacked from the national team after the 2016 Rio Olympics after calling the Swedish team “cowards” for taking a defensive stance against the defending gold medalists, ending a commendable game of punishment. an era that was also marred by controversy.

She was suspended for 30 days in early 2015 after she and husband Jeremy Stevens were pulled over in a van owned by USA Soccer and Stevens was charged with aggravated battery. She was also benched after publicly questioning coach Greg Ryan’s decision to start Brianna Scarry against Brazil at the 2007 World Cup.

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Solo was also involved in an altercation with family members in 2014 that led to Solo’s arrest, although charges in that case were eventually dropped.

Solo played 202 matches for the national team, winning 153 and making an international record 102 shutouts. With the team, she won the World Cup title and two Olympic gold medals.

During the 2015 World Cup, she conceded just three goals in seven games with five shutouts.

In January, she was elected to the US Soccer Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony was scheduled for May 21, but the newspaper reported that Solo asked to postpone the ceremony until next year.

Solo married Stevens, a former tight end for the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in 2012. The couple’s twins, Vittorio Chinggis and Lauzen Ariana Judith Stevens, were born on March 4, 2020.

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