After being disgraced for a doping scandal, Lance Armstrong sought to redeem himself and restore the glory he had known as a cycling superstar. But now the former sports hero is finding himself in the headlines again after police say he drove into parked cars after partying, then tried to blame his girlfriend, reported CNN .
The accident happened as Lance was driving home at home after the parties. Initially, he was not charged. However, when his girlfriend Anna Hansen finally confessed that she had been lying about being behind the wheel, Colorado police cited Armstrong.
The summons was served through Lance’s lawyer. Police cited him for two separate misdemeanors. One was the duty to report accidents. while the other involved exceeding the safe speed for conditions.
All charges were dropped against Anna after she said she had lied trying to protect Lance. Hansen admitted that the two had decided it would be best if she took the blame.
“That was a joint decision and um, you know we’ve had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years and… I thought, ‘Gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, it’s not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it’s going to be a national story.’”
However, Anna also told the police that Armstrong had been drinking , revealed the Christian Science Monitor.
“Lance had a little bit to drink,” admitted Hansen, according to the police reports.
A man who had rented one of the cars that Lance struck revealed to police that Anna had apologized to him. She had offered to pay for all repairs. However, both she and Armstrong left before the police arrived.
The fines and jail time for failing to report an accident involve up to 90 days in jail and a fine of between $150 and $300. Driving too fast can result in a fine between $15 and $100.
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For Armstrong, the police involvement comes years after his success in winning the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005. But he lost all of those annual titles when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigated and revealed his use of performance-enhancing drugs in 2012.
That investigation followed Lance’s recovery from testicular cancer and success in both winning seven Tour de Frances and raising millions for cancer research and himself.
Armstrong initially attempted to deny his use of drugs. In an era where celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow routinely joke about using hard drugs such as Ecstasy , as the Inquisitr reported, he avoided any implications of wrong-doing for enhancing his performance.
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