Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch pleaded no contest Thursday to a reckless driving charge and was sentenced to two years’ probation to avoid a trial on misdemeanor DUI charges, his defense attorney said today.
Lynch, 27, was arrested in the early morning hours of July 14, 2012, after a California Highway Patrol officer saw him weaving in and out of a lane on northbound Interstate Highway 880 in Oakland.
The officer pulled Lynch over near 67th and Shellmound streets in Emeryville and a breath test showed that he had a blood-alcohol content over the legal limit of .08 percent, according to the CHP.
However, defense attorney Ivan Golde said Lynch’s blood-alcohol level was exactly at the limit of .08 percent when tested at the scene.
Golde said his client had a good chance of winning the case at trial, but after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl earlier this month and with endorsement deals in mind for Lynch, “it just made sense to resolve it this way.”
“We felt we had a 90 percent chance of winning this case, but sometimes you have to think about other issues,” he said.
In exchange for his plea to the lesser reckless driving charge, Lynch was sentenced to the two-year probation term, as well as being fined $1,033 and ordered to attend six driver safety classes, Golde said.
Golde said he does not anticipate Lynch facing disciplinary action from the NFL for the case.
Lynch, an Oakland native, graduated from University of California at Berkeley as the school’s second-best career rusher and was a key player in Seattle’s Super Bowl run this season.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
