New footage released today shows the moment former American soccer star Hope Solo was yanked from her car by police on the night of her DWI arrest after she passed out behind the wheel with her two-year-old twins in the back.
Solo, 41, was arrested March 31 after she was discovered in her car in a Walmart parking lot in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her two-year-old twins, Lozen and Vittorio, were in the back seat of the car and the engine was still running.
The ex-USWNT goalkeeper was later convicted and given a 30-day prison sentence, which she did not have to serve due to the month she spent in rehab after the incident.
That night’s video, published today by Queen City News, shows a police officer knocking on the driver’s window before a startled Solo responds with “Oh my God.”
She is asked, “Hello, can you open the door for me? Are you OK? People were a little concerned that you were sleeping here and wanted to make sure everything was okay.’ Solo claims she stopped to “take a nap.”
When asked how much to drink, the World Cup winner and two-time Olympic gold medalist says, “It’s okay if I…” before sinking. She later replies to the same question “I haven’t had it” and “I’m fine, thank you sir,” adding that she drank “zero alcohol” while scrolling through her phone.
“I was just trying to take a nap because I’m so damn tired from driving. Yeah, I, I mean, I stopped at a Walmart parking lot to take a nap. I have no idea why he’s here, but wait a minute,” Solo says in a phone call.
Hope Solo is shown the night of her DWI arrest in new footage released today
She is later pulled from the car, with her two-year-old twins crying in the back seat, after suggesting that she should not submit to sobriety tests in the field.
Solo is later handcuffed after she kept telling the officers that she was just napping and refusing to submit to tests.
According to an arrest warrant for the incident in March, a passerby noted that Solo fell off the wheel for more than an hour with the engine running and the two children in the back seat.
An responding officer could smell alcohol, and the warrant said Solo refused a field sobriety test.
Solo, widely regarded as one of the greatest female goalkeepers in history, lives with former NFL star husband Jerramy Stevens and twins Vittorio Genghis and Lozen Orianna Judith Stevens, in the city of Roaring Gap.
After the March incident, the former soccer star decided to postpone her Hall of Fame ceremony, writing, “I have contacted the Hall of Fame and have respectfully requested that my Hall of Fame ceremony be postponed until 2023.”
“I will voluntarily participate in an in-house alcohol treatment program to address my problems with alcohol.”
Solo was taken to the magistrate’s office, where she refused to take a breathalyzer, so the police were given a search warrant for a blood sample. Solo had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.24%, three times the legal limit.
Tests also showed Solo had THC in her system, according to a police report.
Solo has had to deal with the law before, including one in 2014 when she was arrested at her home in Washington for allegedly assaulting her cousin and a half-sister. That case was later dropped after prosecutors’ witnesses refused to testify against her.
Former US women’s national team goalkeeper Solo was arrested March 31 (right) on suspicion of alcohol use. She is pictured (left) in 2015 wearing the Adidas Glove Gold Award
Solo was also unceremoniously expelled from the national team in 2016, after she was sacked during the 2016 Olympics in Brazil after calling the Swedish team “cowards” for taking a defensive stance against the defending gold medalists, leading a ended a commendable career that was also marred by controversy.
She was suspended for 30 days in early 2015 after she and her husband were apprehended in an American football van and Stevens was charged with DUI.
She was also benched after publicly questioning coach Greg Ryan’s decision to start Briana Scurry against Brazil during the 2007 World Cup, comments many took as a light one against Scurry.
Solo made 202 appearances with the national team, with 153 wins and an international record of 102 shutouts. She won a World Cup title and two Olympic gold medals with the team.
During the 2015 World Cup run, she conceded just three goals in seven games with five shutouts.
She was elected to the US Soccer Hall of Fame in January. The inaugural ceremony was scheduled for May 21, but the newspaper reported that Solo had requested that the ceremony be postponed until next year.