Marshawn Lynch takes deal in Las Vegas DUI case: attorneys
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The day a trial was to begin on his DUI charge, former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch has taken a plea deal, Nexstar's KLAS has learned. Lynch can now avoid jail time if he fulfills a judge's requirements.
Lynch was originally charged with misdemeanor DUI after Las Vegas Metro police said they found him sleeping at the wheel of a car in 2022.
Ahead of the trial, which was scheduled to start Wednesday, Lynch accepted a plea deal for the misdemeanor DUI. As part of the deal, the charge will be lowered to reckless driving if Lynch completes DUI school, a victim impact panel, an alcohol evaluation, 200 hours of community service, and stays out of trouble for a year, documents said.
The case would then be dismissed and closed as a reckless driving infraction, according to the court docs.
The judge also ordered Lynch to pay a $1,140 fine.
"Mr. Lynch has not been convicted of any offense at his time," his attorneys, Richard Schonfeld and David Chesnoff, said in a statement. "He has agreed to complete certain requirements which will result in this case being closed as a reckless driving traffic offense."
Prosecutors suspect Lynch, 37, had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit in the hours after police found him in a car near the Las Vegas Strip in 2022, documents said.
Officers arrested Lynch around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 9, after observing him “asleep behind the wheel with the vehicle in an undrivable condition,” Nexstar's KLAS previously reported. The car, a 2020 Shelby GT500 Coupe, was unregistered, police said.
Lynch’s lawyers had argued the case did not constitute a DUI. Nevada law, however, states that a person sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle is deemed “in physical control” of that vehicle.
Lynch was involved in a previous crash on Feb. 22, 2022, that led to a parking ticket, KLAS first reported. He was driving on Tropicana Avenue near Santoro Drive around 4 a.m. when his Lamborghini Aventador “collided with landscaping and a fence,” police wrote in a report.
In that case, police cited Lynch for the crash and did not arrest him. Court records show Lynch pleaded nolo contendere — accepting violation but denying guilt — to a charge of stopping, standing, or parking prohibited in specified places, a misdemeanor. A judge ordered him to pay a $750 fine.
Lynch most recently played for the Seattle Seahawks and played for the then-Oakland Raiders for the 2017-2018 season.