Lance Armstrong hits parked cars; passes blame to girlfriend, police report
According to police reports, Lance Armstrong hit two parked cars on Dec. 28, after partying in Aspen, Colo., and then left the scene. The disgraced cyclist let his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, take the blame for the collisions. The Aspen Daily News reports Hansen told police that she was driving the GMC SUV to keep Armstrong away from media attention. Hansen was cited for failing to report the accident and for going too fast for the road conditions. Later, when the police spoke with Hansen again, she admitted to lying to cover for Armstrong. On Jan. 12, police transferred the citations to Armstrong.
“We’ve had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years and honestly, I’ve got teenagers, I just wanted to protect my family,” Hansen told police. “I thought, gosh, Anna Hansen hit some cars, it’s not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it’s going to be a national story.”
On Dec. 29, the day after the accident, one of the car owners called police to report a hit-and-run. Police tracked down Armstrong’s vehicle, which had serious front-end damage. Later that day, police met with Hansen.
“Hansen told us that she was driving home from an Aspen Art Museum party the previous night,” one of the officers wrote. “Hansen told me that she drove the GMC home because ‘Lance had a little bit to drink so I was driving. I was not drinking.’”
The officer, police detective Rick Magnuson, was suspicious of Hansen’s story. He spoke with an employee of the valet company who had worked at the art museum’s gala. The employee said he had helped Hansen into the passenger side of the vehicle.
On Dec. 31, Magnuson once again interviewed Hansen. On this day, at the Pitkin County Courthouse, she allegedly admitted that Armstrong was driving the vehicle. She also allegedly said that the former cyclist was not intoxicated, nor did he pressure her into taking the blame. It was supposedly a joint decision.
Because Hansen eventually co-operated fully with police, she will not face charges for making a false report.
Armstrong has a court date set for March 17. His lawyer is Pamela Mackey, who represented Kobe Bryant in 2003-04, when the NBA star was charged with sexual assault.
