Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PARK CITY — Olympic gold-medal skier Picabo Street is headed for a May trial on misdemeanor domestic violence charges after she turned down a plea deal in the Utah case, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Street was defending herself from her combative 76-year-old father and expects to be cleared of the charges at trial, said defense attorney Joe Wrona. He pushed to have a judge rather than a jury hear the case so it could come to trial more quickly.
"Picabo really didn't have a choice on the morning in question," he said. "She had to take the action that she took."
Street, 44, appeared in the Park City court, but she did not speak during the hearing or to reporters after. Her trial is set for May 3.
Prosecutors contend she started the Dec. 23 fight that left cuts on Roland Street's elbow and neck. Roland Street told police his daughter started yelling after he hit her house while trying to drive away in snowy weather, and the physical fight broke out after they went back inside.
He has not been charged.
Picabo Street turned down a type of plea deal commonly offered to first-time offenders that would have cleared her record if she completed certain conditions like treatment and staying out of trouble, prosecutor Robert Hilder said.
During the hearing, he asked the judge to order that public statements about the high-profile case stay civil.
Judge Shauna Kerr told both sides to be on good behavior. "This case will be tried in this court, not in the media," she said.
Picabo Street is accused of throwing her father down two flights of stairs and locking him in a basement during the fight at her home near Park City.
She told 911 dispatchers that she "put" her dad down the stairs after he pulled her hair and scratched her face, according to a recording of the call. Her mother can be heard in the background disputing that version of what happened.
Wrona says the skier cares for her aging parents as well as her own children, and called 911 for help that day.
Picabo Street remains free on bail. She is facing three counts of misdemeanor domestic violence in the presence of a child and one count of misdemeanor assault. If convicted, she faces up to six months in jail on each count.
Street had an illustrious skiing career highlighted by a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, in the women's super-G event. She also won silver in the downhill at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and competed in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
She worked as an analyst for Fox Sports during the 2014 Winter Games from Sochi, Russia.
___
This story has been corrected to show the trial has been scheduled for May, not April.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
