Marshawn Lynch’s DUI trial scheduled to begin Wednesday in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The DUI trial for former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch was scheduled to begin Wednesday in Las Vegas Municipal Court.

Prosecutors suspect Lynch, 37, had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit in the hours after police found him asleep in a car near the Las Vegas Strip in 2022, documents said.

Officers arrested Lynch after the traffic stop at Fairfield and West Utah avenues around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 9, the 8 News Now Investigators first reported. Officers said they found him “asleep behind the wheel with the vehicle in an undrivable condition.” The car, a 2020 Shelby GT500 Coupe, was unregistered, police said.

Lynch’s blood alcohol level was 0.18, documents said. He faces charges of DUI liquor and/or drugs, driving an unregistered vehicle, and failure to drive in a travel lane. He has pleaded not guilty.

Lynch’s lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, have argued the case does not constitute a DUI. Nevada law states a person sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle is deemed “in physical control,” of the vehicle.

“While [the officer] claims to have ‘observed [sic] a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from the vehicle, his person, and his breath,’ no evidence proves that Mr. Lynch drank anything or actually operated the vehicle on the night of the encounter,” his attorneys previously wrote in court documents.

Lynch was involved in a previous crash on Feb. 22, 2022, that led to a parking ticket, the 8 News Now Investigators first reported. He was driving on Tropicana Avenue near Santoro Drive around 4 a.m. when his Lamborghini Aventador “collided with landscaping and a fence,” police wrote in a report.

In that case, police cited Lynch for the crash and did not arrest him. Court records show Lynch pleaded nolo contendere — accepting violation but denying guilt — to a charge of stopping, standing, or parking prohibited in specified places, which is a misdemeanor. A judge ordered him to pay a $750 fine.

Lynch most recently played for the Seattle Seahawks and played for the then-Oakland Raiders for the 2017-2018 season.

Lynch’s attorneys had previously noted their client originally lost his privilege to drive, but their petition to “rescind his revocation” was successful after a hearing found an officer insufficient evidence that Lynch was driving. They did not return a request for comment ahead of Wednesday’s trial date.

It was unclear Tuesday how long the trial could last.

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