Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman pleads guilty to misdemeanors in connection with freeway crash
NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges from an incident last summer.
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges stemming from an incident last summer in which prosecutors say he drove on the wrong side of the 5 Freeway in Santa Ana and caused another car to crash into the dividing wall.
The Newport Beach resident, who was not present in Orange County Superior Court during the proceedings, pleaded guilty through his attorney to one misdemeanor count of driving a motor vehicle across a dividing section, one misdemeanor count of giving false information to a police officer, and one misdemeanor count of driving a motor vehicle without a valid license, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
As part of a plea deal, he was sentenced to three years of informal probation and 30 hours of community service and ordered to pay restitution. Details of the restitution order weren’t immediately available, but his payments include $500 to a victim witness emergency fund, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that around 12:30 a.m. July 20, Rodman, 55, was driving a sport utility vehicle north in the southbound carpool lane of the 5 Freeway near Main Street in Santa Ana. Prosecutors alleged he drove head-on toward another vehicle, causing that driver to swerve and crash into the dividing wall.
The driver called 911 and California Highway Patrol officers responded. Prosecutors said Rodmanfled before the officers arrived and failed to exchange information with the other driver.
A CHP investigation named Rodman as a person of interest in the case days after the crash. By August, the CHP recommended that he face charges.
That same month, during a book signing in New Jersey, Rodman claimed that nothing had happened, the Associated Press reported.
“Guess what? Nothing happened. There was no wreck, there was no injuries, there was no nothing, so I guess it’s going on hearsay,” Rodman told AP.
By November, the Orange County district attorney’s office filed charges and contended that Rodman gave officers a false account of the incident.
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