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Brady HendersonESPN
RENTON, Wash. – Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith says he doesn’t foresee “any problem” resulting from his January arrest on suspicion of DUI.
Smith, who is competing with Drew Lock to replace Russell Wilson as Seattle’s starter, was made available to reporters Wednesday for the first time since the arrest.
“Those things will be worked out, but I’m extremely confident in all those things,” Smith said after the Seahawks’ second minicamp practice. “Those things, they have a timeline and they have to get worked out, but I don’t see any problem.”
A spokesperson with the King County Prosecutor’s Office told ESPN last month that they’re still awaiting blood-test results from the State Patrol Crime Lab before making a charging decision, and that blood tests in DUI cases are currently taking about 10 months to process.
Smith, 31, was arrested in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue at 2:10 a.m. on Jan. 10, hours after the Seahawks returned home from their season finale at Arizona. According to an arrest report, Washington State Patrol pulled Smith over for allegedly going 90 mph in a 60-mph zone and driving erratically across several lanes of traffic. A state trooper “detected a strong odor of intoxicants and observed the driver had bloodshot, watery eyes.” Smith told the state trooper he had some wine earlier in the night but had stopped drinking 90 minutes before he was pulled over.
A judge issued a search warrant for a blood draw after Smith declined to take a preliminary breath test.
In a tweet afterwards, Smith wrote that “being arrested brings a taint onto the reputation that is impossible to undo, no matter what really happened. I’m asking all of you to hold back on judging me the same as you would do for a friend or family member. I’ll have more to say down the road & ask that you bare with me.”
Smith is competing for the Seahawks’ starting job after spending the past three seasons as Wilson’s backup. He went 1-2 in three fill-in starts for Wilson last season and was re-signed in April to a one-year, $3.5 million deal that includes $500,000 guaranteed with another $3.5 million available in incentives.
Source: www.espn.com