Former US women’s soccer star Hope Solo was arrested in a Walmart parking lot last week, when North Carolina police found her passed out behind the wheel with her two toddlers in the back seat.
A bystander noticed the scandal prone Olympian was sleeping behind the wheel of her running vehicle for more than an hour, while her two-year-old twins were in the car on Thursday. The responding officer could smell alcohol, but Solo refused a field sobriety test in favor of a blood draw at a local hospital in Winston-Salem.
The former goalkeeper was arrested on charges of driving while impared, resisting a public officer, and misdemeanor child abuse. She was released from custody and will have to appear in court on June 28, according to the police report.
“On the advice of counsel, Hope can’t speak about this situation, but she wants everyone to know that her kids are her life, that she was released immediately and is now at home with her family, that the story is more sympathetic than the initial charges suggest, and that she looks forward to her opportunity to defend these charges,” her lawyer said on Friday.
Solo apparently did not heed her counsel’s advice, and released a statement about the incident on Saturday.
“Our family is strong and surrounded with love. Our kids are strong, intelligent, happy and vibrant, and we are present every day giving them the best life possible,” she wrote on Twitter. “We will be able to share the facts in due time.”
“In the meantime, our kids are enjoying the NC sun, eating popsicles and playing on our property,” Solo continued. “Life can be tough, but these are truly the moments that matter. I feel blessed to have this kind of love in my life.”
This isn’t the two-time gold medalist’s first brush with the law, she was arrested for assault during a family squabble in 2014, but the charges were eventually dropped. Solo was with her husband, former NFL player Jerramy Stevens, when he was arrested for driving U.S. Soccer team while intoxicated in 2015.
She was forced out of professional sports when U.S. Soccer suspended her for six months and terminated her national team contract in 2016, after calling the Swedish team “cowards” during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Solo is scheduled to be inducted to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame in May, after 153 wins and 102 shutouts during her storied career on the Women’s national team
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Yes it is very evidentby her actions that her kids are her first bottle, I mean priority.