WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Decorated soccer star Hope Solo has been sentenced after pleading guilty to driving while impaired in a vehicle with her young children inside.
Solo was arrested on March 31 and charged with driving while impaired, resisting a public officer, and misdemeanor child abuse, as we reported at the time. Solo had been found passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle for more than an hour, with the engine running and her 2-year-old twins in the back seat.
Nearly four months after her arrest, Solo pleaded guilty to driving while impaired, and the other two charges were voluntarily dismissed, her attorney told the Winston-Salem Journal.
Solo was given a suspended sentence of 24 months and an active sentence of 30 days, as well as 30 days’ credit for time she spent at an in-patient rehabilitation facility, The Associated Press reported. Solo was also ordered to pay $3,100 in fines and lab costs, get a substance abuse assessment and complete recommended treatment.
In a statement posted on Monday to Instagram, Solo said: “It’s been a long road, but I’m slowly coming back from taking time off. I pride myself in motherhood and what my husband and I have done day in and day out for over two years throughout the pandemic with two-year old twins. While I’m proud of us, it was incredibly hard 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.”
Hope Solo is one of the top U.S. soccer stars in recent history, earning two Olympic gold medals as a goalkeeper in Beijing and London in 2008 and 2012, respectively, The New York Times reported. She also won the World Cup in 2015 in Canada.
Solo, whose legal name is Hope Amelia Stevens, previously faced charges of domestic violence and assault in Washington state in 2014 and 2018, which were both dropped, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.