KU defensive lineman Isi Holani’s DUI charge dismissed

photo by: Carter Gaskins

Kansas' Isi Holani (6) walks back to the locker room after a loss to Nicholls State on Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

Kansas football coach David Beaty suggested earlier this week that a resolution was coming on defensive tackle Isi Holani’s summer DUI charge.

On Tuesday, Holani’s case was dropped because he didn’t meet the legal standard for the violation.

A KU football spokesperson confirmed the redshirt senior, who played in Week 1, will not miss any games due to punishment.

According to the KU defensive lineman’s lawyer, Hatem Chahine, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in DUI law, when Holani was arrested in late July in Lawrence, his blood alcohol concentration was below the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

The prosecutor for the case, Chahine said, had to determine whether there was enough probable cause to move forward with the charge, in spite of Holani’s legal BAC level the night of the arrest.

“In this case, they did not feel like they did. They didn’t feel like they could prove sufficiently that he was incapable of safely driving a vehicle, so they dismissed the charge,” Chahine explained.

Holani’s lawyer said the prosecutor “did the right thing” because no evidence pointed to Holani being incapable of driving a vehicle.

“When I look at the case, it’s not fair when somebody gets charged with a DUI generally when it’s under a .08 unless you have some factors like an accident or something like that. There was never that in this case,” Chahine said.

A 6-foot-3, 325-pound defensive tackle, Holani didn’t start in the Jayhawks’ Saturday home loss to Nicholls State, but he did appear on the first defensive series as a substitute. He was credited with one solo tackle in the overtime defeat.

Holani posted a note regarding his arrest on Twitter Tuesday evening. Holani wrote, in part, that the officer who arrested him was “simply doing his job,” and that he was “proud” to live in Lawrence, a city with “great” officers.

“He was professional throughout the entire situation,” Holani wrote of the officer. “The justice system then worked through the details of my situation and as a result of my cooperation and the professionalism of both the law enforcement officer and the prosecutor, we were able to come to an appropriate resolution.”