Hope Solo was a soccer player, playing the position of goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s national soccer team from 2000 to 2016. Solo was on the U.S. team when it won the World Cup and twice when she won the gold medal in the Olympics.
Solo is married to former Seattle Seahwaks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Jerramy Stevens. She and Stevens have twins, Vittoria Genghis and Lozen Orianna Judith Stevens who were born on March 4 2020.
Solo was arrested in April 2022 and charged with driving while intoxicated after being found passed out in her car with her twins.
Controversies Before DWI Arrest
Solo was involved in several controversies before her 2022 DWI arrest.
Solo was arrested in 2014 and accused of domestic violence in an incident involving her 17 year old nephew. Seattle Police said they responded to a call of a woman “hitting people” at Solo’s home and found her “intoxicated and upset.” Solo’s case was later dismissed on procedural grounds.
Solo was suspended for 30 days by U.S. Soccer in 2015 after her husband was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. News reports said that Solo was in the car and arguing with Stevens at the time of the arrest. A police report said Solo was “acting belligerent” during the arrest.
Solo was suspended by U.S. Soccer and her contract terminated in 2016 for what it called “conduct that is counter to the organization’s principles.” The action came after the U.S. team was eliminated by the Swedish team in the quarterfinals of the Rio 2016 Olympics and Solo called the team “a bunch of cowards.”
Video: Solo responds to 2016 suspension
DWI, Child Abuse Arrest
In April 2022 Solo was arrested in North Carolina, where she lives, by police from the Winstom-Salem police department. She was in the parking lot of a Walmart.
Police said Solo was found passed out behind the wheel of her car while her two year old twins were in the car with her.
The police report said Solo was found by a passerby, sitting passed out in the car for over an hour with the engine running. The police officer who responded to the call said he could smell alcohol on her breath.
Solo reportedly refused a field sobriety test and instead her blood alcohol level was determined through a blood draw. Solo’s blood alcohol level was 0.24 %, three times the legal limit in North Carolina of 0.08%.
The tests also showed that Solo had Delta-9 THC in her system.
Court records also said that Solo had glassy and red eyes at the time of her arrest.
Solo was charged with driving while impaired, resisting a public officer and misdemeanor child abuse.
Solo Response To DWI Arrest
Solo released a statement through her lawyer Rich Nichols in response to her arrest.
The statement: “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.”
Soccer Hall Of Fame Induction
Before the arrest, Solo had been scheduled to be added to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame in May 2022.
In April 2022, Solo said she contacted the Hall of Fame and “respectfully requested a postponement of my Hall of Fame induction ceremony to 2023.”
Solo Goes To Rehab
Solo said in April 2022 that she would be going to a rehab center to address issues relating to alcohol.
She wrote, “I will be voluntarily entering an in-patient alcohol treatment program to address my challenges with alcohol.”
Solo attended Hope Valley Treatment Center, which is based in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina.
Guilty Plea
In July 2022 Solo pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while impaired. She appeared before Judge Victoria Roemer, a district judge in Forsyth county, North Carolina.
Roemer sentenced Solo to a suspended sentence of 24 months and an active sentence of 30 days. Solo was given 30 days of credit for the time she spent in a rehab facility.
The judge ordered Roemer to pay $2,500 in fines and a $600 fee for the cost of the lab tests that were used to determine her sobriety after the arrest.
After the sentence, Solo surrendered her driver’s license to the state of North Carolina.
Solo: DWI Arrest Was “Worst Mistake” Of Her Life
In July 2022, Solo posted a message to Twitter describing the DWI arrest as the “worst mistake” she had ever made in her life.
Solo wrote, “I made a huge mistake” and added that it was “easily the worst mistake of my life.”
“I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become.”
In August 2022, Solo launched a podcast called “Hope Solo Speaks” with Sirius XM. On her first episode she talked about the DWI arrest and said she suffered from “post partum depression.”
Video: Hope Solo talks about DWI arrest, post partum depression
One of the first political bloggers in the world, Oliver Willis has operated OliverWillis.com since 2000. Contributor at Media Matters for America and The American Independent. Follow on Twitter at @owillis. Full bio.
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