A prosecutor in eastern Idaho has announced that misdemeanor drug charges against Olympic skiing champion Bode Miller will be thrown out, even though authorities say there was enough evidence to justify his arrest.
Miller, 48, was taken into custody on June 6 in Fremont County — a rural area bordering both Montana and Wyoming — and faced charges of possessing psilocybin mushrooms. He entered a not guilty plea last week, maintaining that a friend traveling with him had a small quantity of drugs that Miller had no knowledge of.
County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake released a statement to The Associated Press on Friday confirming her office intends to drop both the drug possession and drug paraphernalia charges against the skiing star.
“Although the deputy had sufficient probable cause to arrest Mr. Miller at the beginning of June, we recently received information which resulted in our office determining it is in the interest of justice to dismiss Mr. Miller’s misdemeanor charges,” Blake stated. “I will not be discussing the specifics of this recent information due to it being related to another active case.”
Blake offered no further details about the other case in question. However, court records available online connected to Miller’s case show that another individual was charged with the same offenses.
Miller’s attorney, Jeromy Stafford, had not responded to phone or email messages by Friday. Earlier in the week, Stafford told reporters that Miller did not have any drugs on him at the time of his arrest.
On Wednesday, Miller took to Instagram to share his account of events, saying he was pulled over after speeding up to pass another vehicle on a highway. He explained that his companion had a small amount of cannabis and a cannabis pipe — items Miller said he was unaware of.
“We fully cooperated with the officer,” Miller wrote. “I am hopeful the misdemeanor charges will be dropped once the facts are reviewed.”
According to a probable cause statement, Fremont County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Hurt reported discovering a white dispensary bag in Miller’s possession containing 4.1 grams of psychedelic mushrooms.
Throughout his athletic career, Miller was known for his daring, all-or-nothing approach to ski racing. That fearless style earned him six Olympic medals — including a gold in the super-combined at the 2010 Vancouver Games — along with a number of spectacular crashes along the way.
His final major competition came at the 2015 world championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado, where a serious fall ended his super-G run. He later had surgery to repair a torn right hamstring tendon caused when his ski cut into him during the crash. By late 2017, Miller announced he was permanently retired from the sport.
Over the course of his career, Miller claimed 33 World Cup victories and two World Cup overall championships, while also taking home four gold medals at world championships.
