On Friday, Michael Phelps has pleaded guilty to drunken driving. He was sentenced to a year in prison however, his jail time sentence was suspended. Phelps' plea came almost three months after he was arrested after leaving a casino in downtown Baltimore.
In court, Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was contrite before pleading guilty for DUI. According to ABC News, his lawyer was detailing his pursuit of sobriety since he was arrested, which included the 45-day inpatient treatment in Arizona.
A letter from Phelps' doctor was also presented in court, which stated that the athlete was forthright and cooperative. ESPN also reported that he is attending Alcoholics Anonymous and is continuing with therapy in Maryland.
"I now have the tools to move past this," Phelps told the judge. "What I did was wrong, and I made a bad mistake. I'm looking forward to having a much brighter future than I had in the past."
Michael Phelps, an 18-time gold medalist swimmer, was arrested on Sept. 30. As reported by The Guardian, the swimmer was leaving the Horseshoe Casino in downtown Baltimore when he was pulled over for speeding and crossing the double yellow line while driving in a tunnel. Based on the police report, Phelps registered a .14 percent on a blood-alcohol test while the legal limit to drive in Maryland is only .08 percent.
For six months, USA Swimming banned Michael Phelps from the sport after a week of being arrested.
This is not the first time that 29-year-old swimmer Michael Phelps has pleaded guilty and has been convicted of driving under the influence. In 2004, NPR reported that he also pleaded guilty to drunken driving in another Maryland county.
Before the latest DUI charge and guilty plea, Michael Phelps was coming out of retirement, The Washington Post reported. The swimmer has plans to compete in a fifth Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. However, the plea is not expected to have any impact on those plans.
Meanwhile, under the terms of his guilty plea, Michael Phelps has been placed on an 18-month supervised probation program and must also attend a drinking and driving monitoring program, E! News reported. He is also prohibited from alcohol or drug use while on probation and must get permission before changing his address or job.
