And Then There’s Hope Solo’s Domestic Violence Charges

As it often does (for bet­ter or for worse), sports has brought a press­ing social issue — domes­tic vio­lence — to the fore­front of nation­al dis­course for every­one from ex-jocks to 60-some­thing year-old fem­i­nists. If you’re read­ing this, you prob­a­bly  — like myself —  already feel so over-sat­u­rat­ed with cov­er­age of it that you feel the need to take mul­ti­ple show­ers before watch­ing anoth­er sport­ing event. How­ev­er, beyond all the fir­ings of sports exec­u­tives that colum­nists and talk show hosts have called for in the past weeks lays a grow­ing ele­phant in the room.

More than three months after being charged with two counts of fourth-degree domes­tic-vio­lence, US wom­en’s soc­cer super­star Hope Solo con­tin­ues to play in the team’s qual­i­fy­ing match­es for the 2015 World Cup.

Under­stand­ably many (pre­dom­i­nant­ly male) pun­dits have been cau­tious and hes­i­tant to address the stark con­trast in the dis­ci­pline Solo has received in com­par­i­son to a num­ber of male NFL play­ers, prob­a­bly out of fear of becom­ing the per­son that says the dumb thing that com­pels the angry Twit­ter mob to get their pitch forks and run over to them.

That’s fine.

But if we’re going to have this con­ver­sa­tion as a coun­try, then let’s actu­al­ly have it and let’s have it be found­ed on truth and the facts that we know so far.

The fol­low­ing pic­tures and accom­pa­ny­ing cap­tions chron­i­cle the time­line of Solo’s case begin­ning with the night of June 20.

(1/6) On June 20 US wom­en’s soc­cer goal­keep­er Solo was arrest­ed and charged with two counts of fourth-degree domes­tic vio­lence, the Seat­tle Times report­ed . Accord­ing to the paper, police received were noti­fied by a male caller that there was a woman at the res­i­dence was hit­ting peo­ple and no one could get her to stop or leave the house. Accord­ing to a police report, Solo struck her sis­ter and 17-year-old nephew.Solo was then lat­er booked a deten­tion facil­i­ty with­out bail. AP PHOTO 

(2/6) Accord­ing to the Wash­ing­ton Post , at the time of her arrest, Solo’s lawyer, Todd May­brown, claimed her clien­t’s inno­cence in emails to the New York Times and Asso­ci­at­ed Press. “Hope is not guilty of any crime,” May­brown wrote. “In fact, our inves­ti­ga­tion reveals that Hope was assault­ed and injured dur­ing this unfor­tu­nate inci­dent. We look for­ward to the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present the true facts in court and to hav­ing this mat­ter behind Hope very soon.” How­ev­er, accord­ing the Post, Solo’s nephew told police at the time of the arrest that the alter­ca­tion began after he explained his belief that a good actor has to have an “ath­let­ic state of mind.” Accord­ing to the Post, court doc­u­ments say that Solo then told him he was “too fat and over­weight and crazy to ever be an ath­lete.” AP PHOTO 

(3/6) Con­trary to the social expul­sion many males ath­letes are receiv­ing from sim­i­lar charges, Solo’s biggest spon­sors, includ­ing Nike, have released state­ments affirm­ing that they intend to stand by Solo until a judi­cial deci­sion is reached. “We are aware of the alle­ga­tions and that Hope Solo has pled ‘not guilty’ to the charges. Hope remains a Nike ath­lete and we will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion,” the com­pa­ny said in a state­ment . Solo’s employ­er, US wom­en’s soc­cer, took a sim­i­lar stance. “US Soc­cer takes the issue of domes­tic vio­lence very seri­ous­ly.… Based on that infor­ma­tion, US Soc­cer stands by our deci­sion to allow her to par­tic­i­pate with the team as the legal process unfolds. If new infor­ma­tion becomes avail­able we will care­ful­ly con­sid­er it,” US Soc­cer Pres­i­dent Sunil Gulati said in a state­ment. AP PHOTO 

(4/6) On Nov. 12, 2012, Solo’s then fiancée was was arrest­ed on one count of fourth-degree domes­tic vio­lence fol­low­ing an alter­ca­tion with Solo that report­ed­ly left her injured. How­ev­er, the judge dropped the case the next day cit­ing a lack of evi­dence. Solo and Stevens would mar­ry that same day, less than 24 hours after the alleged alter­ca­tion. AP PHOTO 

(5/6) At the time the news broke, some nation­al sports colum­nists and news out­lets allowed the charges to go near­ly unno­ticed and shrugged off. That neg­li­gence has since entered the spot­light after the NFL’s recent mis­han­dling of pun­ish­ment for mul­ti­ple play­ers charged with domes­tic vio­lence, which has brought the issue to the fore­front of nation­al dis­course . The uproar has led a few pun­dits to ask why so many choose to ignore Solo’s charges as she con­tin­ues to play for the US wom­en’s nation­al team as it works towards qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the 2015 World Cup — does a dou­ble exist between gen­ders and is that a prob­lem? AP PHOTO 

(6/6) For now, despite the grow­ing out­side pres­sure, Hope Solo will play in the team’s next sched­uled match vs. Trinidad and Taba­go on Oct. 15. ESPNW.com’s Kate Fagan (though she made it clear she does not equate cas­es such as Ray Rice’s to Solo’s) writes, “The euphemism of ‘per­son­al sit­u­a­tion’ down­plays the real­i­ty of what is hap­pen­ing, which is that Solo is fac­ing charges of domes­tic vio­lence against two fam­i­ly mem­bers, includ­ing a minor. Anger knows no gen­der, nor does domes­tic vio­lence. U.S. Soc­cer needs to sus­pend Solo, and it needs to do so imme­di­ate­ly.” AP PHOTO