Former U.S. soccer team player Hope Solo was arrested on charges related to driving while under the influence with several children in her vehicle, officials said Friday.
Solo, 40, was taken into custody in a Walmart parking lot in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, before she was taken to the Forsyth County Jail, the Winston-Salem Police Department
told local media. The former goalkeeper’s arrest was
listed in a database of Winston-Salem Police incidents.
Police said that two children were in the vehicle at the time. Officials also
released her mugshot online.
Court documents said that she was found “passed out behind wheel for over (sic) hour” with the engine running and two children in the backseat, local media reported. Officers said in the court papers that they could smell alcohol, and that Solo refused to take a sobriety test and blood was drawn.
Rich Nichols, Solo’s lawyer, issued a statement on her social media page.
“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,” Nichols’ statement
said.
In 2014, Solo, who is married to former NFL player Jeramy Stevens, was
arrested on domestic violence charges. The charges were dropped in 2018.
She’s best known for making numerous appearances as the goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s team between 2000 and 2016, winning two Olympic gold medals and one World Cup. The U.S. team booted her from the roster in 2016.
“When I got fired in 2016 … every time I left for camp my husband Jerramy hated to see me sad,” Solo
said in a recent interview about her time on the team. “I didn’t want to go to the social aspect of camp. I wanted to train my [expletive] off.
