Hope Solo Will Face Domestic Violence Charges Again

The domestic violence charges against Hope Solo that were dropped earlier this year will return after a higher court in King County reversed a lower court’s decision to dismiss them. Solo had been charged with two counts of misdemeanor assault. In January, her lawyer successfully argued to a judge that the case against her should be dismissed because he said the victims—Solo’s half-sister and teenage nephew—refused to be deposed by the defense team.

Local prosecutors immediately appealed and, according to multiple reports today, they won. A document filed today with the state court said, “The court reverses the decision of the lower court and remands the case to the Kirkland (Washington) Municipal Court,” ESPNw reported. Solo’s lawyer, Todd Maybrown, followed it with a statement saying they would appeal.

Solo was accused of attacking her sister and nephew, then 17, on June 21, 2014. After the charges were dropped, she tried staging a national redemption tour in the lead-up to the Women’s World Cup, with the starting goalkeeper insisting she was the victim. This was followed within a week by an Outside the Lines report that portrayed exactly the opposite: it described a drunk Solo who repeatedly punched her nephew in his face and slammed it into the concrete of a converted garage before punching her half-sister in the face. After she was taken by police, Solo reportedly told one officer “I’d kick your ass.”

Solo stayed on the U.S. National Team, which went on win its first World Cup since 1999. She also plays for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Seattle Reign, which lost in the title game this week to FC Kansas City.

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