THE NEW YORK POST – Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton incoherently berated officers during her May DUI arrest — insisting she’s a “gold medalist” and oddly complimenting the cop on his “beautiful blue eyes” while failing her three field sobriety tests, newly-released bodycam footage showed.
Retton — once hailed as “America’s sweetheart” after taking home gold in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics — became combative, repeatedly huffing, “Oh, come on,” as the officer ordered her to follow his finger and later walk a straight line in the parking lot of a West Virginia AutoZone on May 17.
“You should be pretty good at this,” the cop quipped, according to the shocking footage.
The 57-year-old former athlete then exclaimed, “Yeah, I mean upside down.”
Retton, grinning wildly, continuously failed to keep her head still while tracking the officer’s finger during her first test — prompting the cop to stop multiple times and remind her to stop moving.
“You’re making me feel like I’m … I see it,” Retton muttered, as the officer instructed her to focus on his finger.
“I see it, I see it, I see it. I’m looking at your beautiful blue eyes.”
The patient cop directed a flustered Retton to walk in a straight line with her hands at her side, but she interrupted, reminding him, “I’m an Olympic gold medalist,” the wild footage showed.
“Put me in the cell,” she told officers …
Retton was slapped with a $100 fine related to the drunken episode, which is standard for first-time, non-aggravated offenses in West Virginia.
She later took “full responsibility” for what occurred after she entered a plea of no contest to a charge of non-aggravated DUI.
“What happened was completely unacceptable,” she said in a statement released to People through her lawyer.
“I make no excuses. To my family, friends and my fans: I have let you down, and for that I am deeply sorry.”
HEADLINE HEALTH’S TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS SAD STORY:
-
DO NOT DRIVE UNDER THE INFLUENCE. Call an Uber.
-
DO NOT PERFORM FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS. Field sobriety tests are entirely optional. Police cannot give you a ‘lawful order’ to take the tests. There is no such thing as ‘passing’ a field sobriety test; there are only varying degrees of failure. You can be arrested for DUI even if you perform all field sobriety tasks perfectly. You can also be perfectly sober and still ‘fail’ the test.
