Marshawn Lynch takes deal in Las Vegas DUI case, charge could be lowered to ‘reckless driving’

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The day a trial was to begin on his DUI charge, former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch took a plea deal where he avoids jail time if he fulfills a judge’s requirements, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.

Lynch was originally charged with misdemeanor DUI after Las Vegas Metro police said they found him sleeping at the wheel of a car in 2022.

Ahead of the start of a scheduled trial on Wednesday, Lynch accepted a plea deal for the misdemeanor DUI. As part of the deal, the charge will be lowered to reckless driving if Lynch completes DUI school, a victim impact panel, an alcohol evaluation, 200 hours of community service and stays out of trouble for a year, documents said.

The case would then be dismissed and closed as a reckless driving infraction, documents said. The judge also ordered Lynch to pay a $1,140 fine.

“Mr. Lynch has not been convicted of any offense at his time,” his attorneys, Richard Schonfeld and David Chesnoff said in a statement. “He has agreed to complete certain requirements which will result in this case being closed as a reckless driving traffic offense.”

Prosecutors suspect Lynch, 37, had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit in the hours after police found him 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 lawyers had argued the case did 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.

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.

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