Did Hope Solo commit domestic abuse?

Did Hope Solo commit spousal abuse? The US women’s soccer team’s goalkeeper has been arrested for the crime in the past. Now, as the Women’s World Cup begins in Canada, new details have come to light.

On June 21st of last year, Hope Solo was arrested and later charged with two counts of assault in the fourth degree. The first was against her half-sister, and the second was against her nephew. The assaults came just before one o’ clock in the morning, during a party Solo was hosting at her home. According to reports last summer, the assaults on Hope Solo’s half-sister and nephew left visible injuries.

On January 13th of this year, a judge dismissed both charges, citing a lack of cooperation from both of the victims as the reason. In her defense, Hope Solo said that she had been protecting herself against her nephew, who is six feet and nine inches tall, weighs 280 pounds, and was coming at her with a broomstick.

As a result of the charges, Solo sat one game with her home club, the Seattle Reign, and was not suspended from any activities relating to the US Women’s National Team. A question emerged of whether this was the correct mode of action for the team to take, considering the criticism that the NFL faced when in the wake of its initial decision to only suspend running back Ray Rice for two games. Rice, and, later, running back Adrian Peterson, were both found guilty of domestic abuse last season.

Now, with the Women’s World Cup having just kicked off this past weekend and the US among the favorites in the tournament, there is a new report from ESPN detailing Solo’s behavior during her arrest. According to the report, Solo was verbally abusive to the arresting officers, saying to one of them “You’re such a b*tch. You’re scared of me because you know that if the handcuffs were off, I’d kick your a**.”

Solo was so combative, she had to be wrestled to the ground. Once she was booked and jailed, she continued what could be described as a tirade: Solo taunted two officers with implied anti-gay slurs, called another officer a “14-year-old boy,” and, when asked to remove a necklace, told the officer who asked her to do it that the necklace was worth more than the officer made in a year.

In addition, U.S. Soccer is taking heat for only ever getting Hope Solo’s side of the story, and never formally interviewing either of Solo’s alleged victims. And the prosecution has filed an appeal against Solo, which is expected to hear arguments this September.

Theresa Obert, Solo’s half-sister and the mother of the nephew in question, says Solo’s conduct “has most likely ruined their relationship forever.”

(Photo credits: Hope Solo via Facebook)