Charges against Hope Solo thrown out in domestic violence case

A judge has dismissed domestic violence charges against embattled US Soccer star Hope Solo.

|
Andrea Comas/REUTERS
Goalkeeper Hope Solo of the U.S. women's Olympic soccer team attends a training session during the London 2012 Olympic Games outside Manchester in this August 5, 2012 file photo. The domestic violence case against U.S. soccer star Hope Solo, a goalkeeper for the U.S. women's soccer team, was dismissed by a Seattle-area judge on January 13, 2015, local broadcaster King 5 reported.

A domestic violence case against Hope Solo, a goalkeeper for the U.S. women's soccer team, was dismissed by a Seattle-area judge on Tuesday, her attorney said.

Solo, 33, who has played on two Olympic gold medal-winning teams, had pleaded not guilty to striking her sister and nephew during a dispute in June at her home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. She had been slated to stand trial next week.

"Today's decision brings closure to what has been one of the most difficult and emotionally draining times of my life," Solo said in a statement on Facebook in which she thanked her fellow players, coaches and others, "all of whom, under great pressure to do otherwise, chose to stand by and believe in me."

Domestic abuse cases have garnered national attention since the National Football League's handling of the Ray Rice case, in which Commissioner Roger Goodell initially suspended the former Baltimore Ravens running back for two games last year for knocking out his fiancee, whom he has since married.

Goodell later suspended Rice indefinitely when surveillance video was released by website TMZ showing the punch. Rice won an appeal of his suspension in November and is now a free agent.

Solo's attorney, Todd Maybrown, said he had filed a motion in Kirkland Municipal Court to dismiss the charges, arguing the sister and nephew had been uncooperative, including failing to show up for depositions.

Prosecutors said the pair had cooperated, a local broadcaster reported.

Maybrown has said that Solo was the victim in the altercation and that she was hit over the head with a broom handle by a family member.

Police said that during the incident Solo appeared to be upset and intoxicated, while her adult sister and her 17-year-old nephew had visible injuries. She faced two counts of fourth-degree domestic violence, gross misdemeanors.

In November, the trial was delayed after a judge found that her attorney should be allowed to interview the family members with a court stenographer present, despite Solo's sister and nephew's refusal to do so.

Prosecutors maintained the "highly emotional" nature of the case necessitated some limits on how the interviews were recorded.

The Kirkland city attorney's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Peter Cooney and Eric Beech)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Charges against Hope Solo thrown out in domestic violence case
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0113/Charges-against-Hope-Solo-thrown-out-in-domestic-violence-case
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe