After news of the charges against former U.S. women’s soccer star Hope Solo was made public, Rich Nichols—her lawyer—released a statement stating Solo could not speak on the current charges but that her kids are the most important thing to her.
Officers from the Winston-Salem Police Department arrested the 40-year-old retired goalkeeper for impaired driving, resisting arrest and misdemeanor child abuse, according to a statement from the WSPD obtained by Sports Illustrated.
“Hope [Solo] 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 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 said in the statement.
The arrest took place on Thursday in a Walmart parking lot located at 3475 Parkway Village Circle in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Solo had her two-year-old twins, Vittorio and Lozen, when she was arrested. She is married to Jerramy Stevens, an ex-NFL player for the Seahawks and Buccaneers.
She was processed and has been released from the Forsyth County Law Enforcement Detention Center. Thursday’s arrest was not the first one for the 2015 World Cup winner.
In 2014, she was arrested on domestic assault charges connected to a fight with her half-sister and nephew. Then, in 2015, she was suspended from the USWNT for 30 days after Stevens was arrested and charged with driving a U.S. Soccer team van under the influence. Solo was in the van during Stevens’s arrest. U.S. Soccer terminated her contract with the USWNT after the team’s loss to Sweden in the 2016 Summer Olympics, when Solo called the opposing team “cowards” for their style of play.
