Hope Solo Pleads Guilty To DWI Charge, Child Abuse Charge Dismissed

Months after the famous soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo was found passed out behind the wheel of her car with her children inside in North Carolina, she pleaded guilty to driving while impaired and received her sentence. Two additional charges for misdemeanor child abuse and resisting a public officer were reportedly dismissed.

According to the Forsyth District Attorney’s Office, Solo received a two-year sentence that was suspended for all but 30 days. She will still not have to spend any time in prison because Solo’s stint at an inpatient rehab facility that she completed counted toward her sentence.

The soccer star will serve two years of probation and is required to consult a court-approved addiction expert and follow their advice as well. She also had her driver’s license revoked and must work to reapply for it. The day she received her sentence, Solo referred to the ordeal in a post on social media.

She wrote that while she was proud of raising her twins in the pandemic, “I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become.” She also added “The upside of making a mistake this big is that hard lessons are learned quickly. Learning these lessons has been difficult, and at times, very painful.”

Solo was reportedly unconscious in her vehicle for as long as an hour in a Winston-Salem shopping center lot. According to a police warrant, Solo refused to take a field sobriety test or blow into a breathalyzer, but once police were approved to run a blood sample they said she tested positive for THC and had three times the legal blood alcohol level.

Solo is one of the most highly-decorated goalies in women’s soccer. She was terminated from the US National team during the 2016 Rio Olympics when she called the Swedish team “cowards” directly after she had lost to them. She was also let go from her goalie position at the NWSL team Seattle Reign FC.