In 2017, Chris Soules was arrested after being involved in a fatal car crash that killed 66-year-old Kenny Mosher.
On Monday, news surfaced that a judge approved Soules’ plea deal, which imposes two years’ probation and a suspended prison term on the former reality star. According to Fox News, the judge accepted the plea because it was in “accordance with the pre-sentence investigation report recommendations.” Documents obtained by E! News show that Soules also paid a minimum $625 fine, 35% surcharge and “any applicable court costs”.
The accident took place in April 2017. At the time, the Iowa State Patrol confirmed to E! News that Soules was driving a truck that rear-ended Mosher’s tractor-trailer.
Soules previously entered a conditional guilty plea in November 2018 after leaving the scene of the accident.
According to Deadline, he called 911 to wait for first responders but left before police arrived. He was eventually arrested at his home in Arlington. Mosher was pronounced dead at a hospital immediately following the crash. Deadline writes, “Soules contended Iowa law doesn’t require fatal wreck surviving drivers to wait for police. But state prosecutors say it does.”
A statement to E! News by Soules’ attorney later stated, “The prosecutor has amended the charge down to a misdemeanor and Mr. Soules has entered a Conditional Guilty Plea to the misdemeanor charge. This misdemeanor charge carries a penalty ranging between a deferred judgment and no jail time up to two years’ incarceration…The basis for Mr. Soules’ guilty plea is that he failed to provide his registration information to law enforcement or 911 dispatch as required by Iowa law.”
Soules rose to fame as a contestant on Andi Dorfman’s season of The Bachelorette. He placed third and ultimately went on to become The Bachelor for season 19 of the franchise. Soules chose Whitney Bischoff as his fiancee, but in May 2015, the couple called off their engagement.
After his stint on The Bachelor, Soules became a contestant on Dancing With the Stars with Whitney Carson. He was eliminated in week 8 and finished in 5th place.
According to People, Chris spoke the outlet about his single life just one month before being arrested in Iowa.
“It’s been really, still hard,” he told People. “I feel like I’m saying this all the time, but you watch the show, and you watch the reason that I went on the show, because I live in the middle of nowhere, and there’s not a lot of women, so it’s hard to date.”