New body camera footage shows Hope Solo's DWI arrest from March 2022
Body camera footage from Hope Solo's arrest in March, obtained by Queen City News, shows the former soccer star refusing to cooperate with police as her two 2-year-old children cried in the backseat.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, police officer A.J. Sereika pulled into a Walmart parking lot on March 31, 2022 to find Solo asleep behind the wheel of a GMC Yukon, with the engine still running.
The officer is heard in the video footage asking Solo to open the door. She informed the officer she had pulled over to "take a nap" because she was tired. Sereika suspected Solo to be drunk and asked how much she had been drinking, to which Solo denied having any alcohol that night.
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Solo made a call during the encounter with police.
"Hey, love. I have a police officer … yes, I know I had pull over because I’m really tired," Solo said on the phone as the officer waited outside her rolled-down window for her to present her driver's license. "So, I pulled over but there’s a police officer here right now so I’m going to record this. Yeah, I know, love …”
Solo continued on the phone: "I was just trying to take a nap because I’m so (expletive) tired from driving. Yeah, I ... I mean, I pulled over in a Walmart parking lot to take a nap. I have no idea why he’s here, but hang on."
A second Winston-Salem police officer, G.J. Mager, arrived on the scene within four minutes of the stop. Sereika told the officer the following:
"She’s drunk and she’s got two kids. She was passed out asleep in the front seat. She won’t tell me anything, she just says, 'I was sleeping.' But you can smell like the odor – a sweet aroma anyway coming from inside that smells like alcohol and she’s completely oblivious to everything that’s like going on right now."
Sereika asked for Solo's driver's license before heading back to his car to run it. Mager and Solo are heard arguing about whether she was intoxicated and Mager eventually took the phone out of Solo's hands. Solo's two children began to cry during the exchange between her and officer Mager.
Mager is heard asking Solo to step out of the vehicle before he had to pull her out.
"Step on out or I'm pulling you out," said Mager as Solo asked to call her attorney.
As arguing continued, Mager grabbed Solo's left arm and pulled her out of the SUV while she asked to call her attorney again.
"You’re not calling your attorney – anyone right now," Mager told Solo. "Right now, the two things you’re going to do is you’re going to stand here. Do you consent to providing field sobriety tests?"
After refusing the sobriety tests, Mager attempted to handcuff Solo.
"You’re now under arrest for resist, delay, obstruct of an officer," Mager told Solo as he places the handcuffs around her wrists. "We’re trying to investigate something and you’re not being cooperative right now," Sereika told Solo.
The body cam footage ended there, as Solo stood handcuffed in the Walmart parking lot.
The former United States women's national team goalkeeper pleaded guilty late July, four months after she was found passed out in her vehicle. Solo was charged with a DWI, a misdemeanor child abuse and resisting a public officer.
Contact Analis Bailey at aabailey@usatoday.com or on Twitter @analisbailey.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hope Solo DWI arrest shown in new body camera video from March 2022
