‘The Bachelor’ Star Chris Soules Denied Appeal On Fatal Iowa Accident
February 24, 2018
‘The Bachelor’ Star Chris Soules Denied Appeal On Fatal Iowa Accident
The Iowa Supreme Court has denied to hear an appeal by former The Bachelor star Chris Soules to dismiss his felony charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident before it goes to trial.
Soules was the Season 19 star of ABC’s dating competition show after finishing third on Season 10 of The Bachelorette with star Andi Dorfman in 2014. Soules proposed to fertility nurse Whitney Bischoff in the finale. They split about six months later. Soules also appeared on “Dancing With The Stars” in 2015.
In this latest setback, Soules contended Iowa law doesn’t require fatal wreck surviving drivers to wait for police. But state prosecutors say it does. Soules previously asked a judge to dismiss the case but the judge declined last month and Soules appealed..
His case started when Soules, an Iowa farmer in Buchanan County when not on TV, struck a tractor driven by a neighbor on April 24 last year in northern Iowa, sending it into a ditch. He called 911 and waited for first responders, but left before police arrived. He was charged with felony hit and run when the tractor driver died at a local hospital. Court documents claimed alcoholic beverages or containers were found at the scene of the crash.
The Iowa State Patrol said Soules fled on foot after the 8:20 p.m. wreck, which occurred about 15 miles south of Soules’ farm in Arlington.
The Class D felony carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $7,000 fine.