'Embarrassed' Jalen Rose Pleads Guilty To Drunken Driving
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. -- Former Michigan star and NBA player Jalen Rose pleaded guilty Wednesday to drunken driving, telling a judge he was embarrassed to admit that he drank six martinis the night he veered off a snowy road and rolled his Cadillac Escalade.
Standing beside his attorney, Rose pleaded guilty in district court in Bloomfield Hills to operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. He faces up to 93 days in a jail, a $500 fine and court costs when he's sentenced July 27.
Rose was arrested March 11 in neighboring West Bloomfield Township. Despite what an officer described as an odor of intoxicants on Rose's breath and slightly blood shot eyes, Rose told police that night he didn't have a drink and that he doesn't drink.
The story was different before Judge Kimberly Small, who asked Rose how many drinks he had leading up to the crash.
"I'm embarrassed to say I had six drinks that evening," Rose said softly.
When Small asked how large the drinks were, Rose replied: "I'm embarrassed to say probably too big."
The drinks were equivalent to about 12 regular-sized drinks, Small responded.
Authorities said Rose had a 0.088 blood-alcohol level, above Michigan's legal driving limit of 0.08 percent. A hospital blood test revealed his blood-alcohol content was actually 0.12.
Rose, a professional basketball analyst for cable sports giant ESPN, left the courthouse without speaking with reporters.
A basketball standout at Detroit Southwestern High School, the brash Rose was part of Michigan's famous Fab Five, which reached the NCAA title games in 1992 and 1993. He spent 13 years in the NBA, reaching the finals with Indiana in 2000.
Rose and his female passenger were unhurt in the rollover off the two-lane Walnut Lake Road, about 20 miles northwest of Detroit. In a statement released March 30, Rose said he wasn't "feeling impaired" at the time of the accident.
Rose was given several field sobriety tests and had difficulty with each one, West Bloomfield officer Robert Stevens wrote in his report.
While stretched along the back seat of a patrol car, Rose later told the officer that there was no reason for his arrest. When he was told it was for driving while intoxicated, Rose replied: "For what, sir? But I haven't been drinking."
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