Hope Solo charged with drunk driving in North Carolina, cops say kids were in car

Hope Solo was arrested Friday afternoon in North Carolina and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Cops said the U.S. soccer great was passed out behind the wheel of a parked car in a Walmart parking lot in Winston-Salem, local Fox affiliate WGHP reported.

Solo’s two children were in the back seat of the car, according to police.

Soccer player Hope Solo sits on stage before 'Champion & Activist: An Evening With Hope Solo' at University of New Mexico on Jan. 27, 2020.
Soccer player Hope Solo sits on stage before 'Champion & Activist: An Evening With Hope Solo' at University of New Mexico on Jan. 27, 2020.


Soccer player Hope Solo sits on stage before 'Champion & Activist: An Evening With Hope Solo' at University of New Mexico on Jan. 27, 2020. (Sam Wasson/)

A witness called police after seeing Solo asleep at the wheel for over an hour, WGHP reported. Cops said Solo refused a sobriety test.

In addition to the DWI charge, Solo was charged with child abuse and resisting arrest. She was detained at 1:15 p.m., according to a police database.

Solo, 40, released a statement through her lawyer saying “the story is more sympathetic than the initial charges suggest.”

“On the advice of counsel, Hope can’t speak about this situation, but she wants everyone to know that her kids are her life,” her attorney Rich Nichols said in the statement.

Solo, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2015 World Cup champion, and her husband, ex-NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens, have 2-year-old twins together. In a 2014 incident, Solo was arrested and accused of domestic violence against her nephew. The charges were dropped in 2018 after four years of legal wrangling.

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