The following is a new article from GrandForksHerald.com:
Wrestler Kurt Angle pleads guilty to reckless driving charge
Kurt Angle, an Olympian-turned-pro-wrestler who was arrested near Thompson, N.D., on March 25, pleaded guilty Friday to a reckless driving charge.
Under the terms of a plea deal, Angle would have to pay a $475 fine, serve a year of unsupervised probation and undergo a chemical dependency evaluation. He would also receive a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail.
Angle, of Coraopolis, Penn., did not appear in court, but his written plea was filed with the clerk of court’s office Friday. A judge must now decide whether to accept Angle’s plea agreement.
According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, a trooper found Angle behind the wheel of an SUV that was stopped in the median of Interstate 29 a couple of miles south of the Thompson exit. The trooper reportedly smelled an odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle.
Angle initially told the trooper he had hit an icy patch, but the patrol reported that the road was dry. Angle later said he had received a text message that distracted him and caused him to go into the median, according to the patrol.
The patrol said Angle failed a field-sobriety test and was taken to the Grand Forks County jail where he took a breath test. Prosecutor Chris Griffin said Angle’s blood-alcohol level was .083 percent. The legal limit to drive in North Dakota is .08 percent.
Angle, 42, was charged with actual physical control, which means he was not accused of drunken driving but of being behind the wheel of a vehicle while intoxicated.
Based on Angle’s blood-alcohol level and his lack of prior drunken-driving convictions, Griffin said, prosecutors were willing to amend the charge to reckless driving.
On March 25, Angle was in the area to perform at the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling show at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.
In 1996, he won a gold medal wrestling for the U.S. at the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
