LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Former NBA star Dennis Rodman was given community service Monday for a hit-and-run accident he caused by driving the wrong way on a freeway ramp in southern California, officials said.
Rodman was at the wheel of a sports utility vehicle in the early hours of July 20 last year when he went into the southbound carpool lane of Interstate 5 in Santa Ana, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
The 55-year-old drove head-on toward a black BMW, causing the driver to swerve into a dividing wall to avoid a collision with Rodman’s vehicle.
The five-time NBA champion did not exchange information with the other driver and fled the scene before police arrived, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Rodman, who was not at the hearing in Orange County Superior Court, admitted driving a motor vehicle across a divide, giving false information to police.
The false statement allegation stemmed from a call California Highway Patrol officials made to Rodman.
‘’It was a short phone call asking him about the accident and he was saying, ‘I was at the gym,’ and they said, ‘No, you were not at the gym,’’’ said his lawyer Paul Meyer.