Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong drove his SUV into two parked vehicles, then let his girlfriend take the blame for the hit-and-run accident in December, according to an Aspen police report.
Armstrong was issued two traffic citations in January for the incident after Anna Hansen admitted she had lied to police in order to protect her boyfriend and avoid national attention.
According to a report in the Aspen Daily News, Hansen initially told an Aspen homeowner on the evening of Dec. 28 that she was the one driving the SUV that hit two rental vehicles in front of his house.
Aspen police said Hansen left after leaving her contact information with the homeowner without realizing she needed to report the incident to the police. Police identified the SUV in the driveway of the home Hansen shares with Armstrong after the homeowner reported the incident the next day. Hansen was was cited for failing to report an accident and exceeding safe speed for conditions.
In his police report, Det. Rick Magnuson says he was suspicious of Hansen’s story and spoke to an employee of the valet company that worked an event at the St. Regis Aspen Resort attended by the couple. That employee told Magnuson he saw Armstrong get into the driver’s side of the SUV.
Magnuson said in his report that he interviewed Hansen two more times before she confessed on Dec. 31 that she was not driving at the time of the accident. The detective wrote that he asked Hansen if Armstrong asked her to take the blame.
“She replied, ‘No, that was a joint decision,’ ” Magnuson wrote, ” ‘and, um, you know 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 because 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.’”
The citations initially issued to Hansen were transferred to Armstrong. Magnuson told Hansen he appreciated her honesty and would not file charges against her.
“The policy of our office is to encourage all witnesses to tell the truth,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrea Bryan told the Daily News in an email, “and if witnesses lived in fear of being prosecuted for coming forward after making a mistake, we would rarely, if ever, get the full truth from our victims or witnesses.”
Twitter: @chewkiii
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