Olympic Gold Medalist Arrested

[TheeBadOne]

Olympian Johnson pleads innocent to assault

Olympic skier Bill Johnson on Wednesday pleaded innocent to all charges related to his confrontation with a sheriff's deputy and police officer during a traffic stop earlier this month in Troutdale.

Johnson, who won Olympic gold during the 1984 Sarajevo games and was the first American to win the downhill skiing event, was arrested on Feb. 11.


He was charged with two counts of attempted assault on a public safety officer, two counts of resisting arrest and one count of recklessly endangering another person.


A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge entered a plea of innocent to all charges, Johnson’s lawyers said.


Johnson suffered a head injury in 2001 in Montana while attempting a comeback bid. Johnson was wearing a helmet but slammed head first into hard-packed snow on a downhill training run at the U.S. Alpine Championships. He was in a coma for weeks.


Since the accident, Johnson has had trouble handling his daily routine but suffers from poor judgment and lack of impulse control, his lawyer had said last week.


Johnson said he was confused about the traffic stop when a Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office deputy and Troutdale police officer stopped him in his pickup truck near his mother’s Gresham home.


Johnson allegedly punched the deputy repeatedly and kicked the police officer in the groin after taunting them with his gold medal from the 1984 Olympics.


Prosecutors have said Johnson submitted to breath tests for alcohol and underwent a field sobriety test in addition to providing a urine sample. The results have not been released.


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