Sam Kerr, one of the world's top female soccer players, was found not guilty Tuesday of the racially aggravated harassment of a police officer. Kerr, a striker for Australia and for English club Chelsea, accepted she called Police Constable Stephen Lovell "stupid and white" during a heated exchange at a police station after a night out, but had denied that it amounted to the charge. The verdict came on the seventh day of the trial at Kingston Crown Court in London. Kerr showed no emotion during the reading of the verdict, Britain's Press Association reported, but gave a thumbs-up to her barrister, Grace Forbes, after the judge had left.

It is alleged Kerr and her fiancé, Kristie Mewis, a U.S. soccer player contracted to English team West Ham, had been out drinking when they were driven to the police station by a taxi driver, who complained that they refused to pay clean-up costs after one of them was sick, and that one of them smashed the vehicle's rear window. Kerr, who said she feared for her life as she felt "trapped" during the taxi ride, is alleged to have become abusive and insulting toward Lovell at the police station and used expletives while calling him "stupid and white."