Nets coach Jason Kidd pleads guilty to DWI, placed on probation
Nets coach Jason Kidd pleaded not guilty to DWI charges last year. (Steven Freeman/NBAE via Getty Images)
Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd pleaded guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor drunk driving charge a year after he crashed his vehicle into a telephone pole in the Hamptons.
A judge placed Kidd on interim probation after the plea.
Kidd was arrested on July 15, 2012, after police say he smashed his Cadillac SUV into a telephone pole. According to authorities, he smelled of alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot and glassy after the crash. He was the only person in the vehicle and suffered minor injuries. Kidd originally pleaded not guilty to the DWI charge.
"He will say that the drinks he had that night rendered him intoxicated,” Kidd’s lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., said Monday, according to the the New York Daily News. “What Jason is going to do is stand up and own this.”
“If last summer was the wrong example I believe this is the right one,” Burke added. “And that’s worth something.”
More from the Daily News:
As part of the plea arrangement with the office of the Suffolk County District Attorney, Kidd has agreed to make school appearances on Long Island in the fall, which will be taped and can be used later as public-service announcements if the DA’s office chooses to use them that way.
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