Lamar Odom pleads no contest to DUI charge
According to CNN, Lamar Odom, basketball star and Kardashian spouse, pleaded no contest to his drinking under the influence (DUI) charge in court yesterday. Per the agreement, Lamar Odom will be required to attend alcohol counseling for three months, serve 36 months of probation and pay fines and drunk driving fees totaling $1,814, according to Los Angeles City Attorney spokesman Rob Wilcox.
A hearing will be held later by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to determine how long Lamar Odom will have his California drivers license suspended. He had his license immediately suspended at the time of his drunk driving arrest.
Details of DUI arrest of Lamar Odom
Lamar Odom, NBA veteran, was arrested in August of this year after a California Highway Patrol spotted Odoms white Mercedes SUV on the 101 Freeway at 3:25 a.m. "driving in a serpentine manner at 50 mph." According to the patrolman, Lamar Odom displayed "objective signs of intoxication and was unable to perform sobriety tests as explained and demonstrated." Odom also refused to take a chemical test after he was arrested.Who is Lamar Odom?
Lamar Odom is currently married to Khloe Kardashian, less famous sister of Kim Kardashian. He also is famous for playing professional basketball with the L.A. Lakers in 2009 and 2010 where he won two championships. He later moved to Dallas, where he had less than a stellar year. Last season he played with the Clippers averaging four points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 19.7 minutes per game. Now Lamar Odom is considered a free agent after playing a total of 14 years with several NBA teams. No one is quite sure what the future holds for Lamar Odom, although Lamar Odom is no stranger to the law. He has admitted to drug use and has faced trouble with the NBA twice for violating the leagues drug policy in 2001 for marijuana use. "I've made a couple (of mistakes) and I may make a couple again, but hopefully they won't be as big as this one," Odom told reporters then.Test Refusal for DUI in California
As mentioned above, the courts will decide how long to suspend Lamar Odoms license. Generally, if a driver refuses to submit to a chemical test after a DUI arrest they can expect penalties in addition to the standard penalties. For instance, under Californias DUI laws for a first time DUI refusal a driver may face an extra two days in jail, a one year drivers license suspension, and mandatory attendance in a nine month California drunk driving school (the normal attendance required without a refusal is 3 months). Implied Consent Laws have been created to deter drunk drivers, like Lamar Odom, from refusing a test and lowering the chances that drunk drivers will get away with drunk driving because they will eliminate the ability of the state to collect chemical evidence that can help them convict a drunk driver in court.