Tigers' Cabrera Pleads No Contest To DUI

(NewsCore) - Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera will not serve jail time after pleading no contest Thursday to a drunk driving charge, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Cabrera, 28, was arrested in Fort Pierce, Fla., last February for DUI and resisting an officer without violence. His trial was scheduled to start Monday.

The slugger agreed to serve one year of probation and pay nearly $1,500 in fines and court costs, while his driver's license will be suspended for six months, FOX Sports reported.

The charge of resisting an officer was dropped in Thursday's plea agreement with the prosecutor.

"Miguel Cabrera is determined not to allow this to go on any further," his lawyer, Michael Kessler, said in a statement Thursday.

"He wants this behind him before the start of spring training. For that reason, and for that reason only, Miguel Cabrera asked me to settle this case today."

According to authorities, Cabrera was spotted by a police officer after pulling his Range Rover to the side of a rural highway with a smoking engine.

The police report stated that Cabrera smelled of alcohol and was slurring his words before taking drink from a bottle of Scotch in front of the deputy.

Police said Cabrera refused to cooperate and used an expletive after being asked repeatedly to get into the patrol car.

The deputy stated in the report that he had to deliver three or four knee shots to Cabrera's thigh to get the six-foot-four, 240-pound star into the car.

Cabrera said he was driving from his South Florida home to the Tigers' spring training facility in Lakeland.

The first baseman entered alcohol rehab for three months after a drunken fight with his wife in October 2009.

Cabrera enjoyed another stellar season as one of baseball's best hitters in 2011, winning the AL batting crown with a .344 batting average to go with 30 home runs and 105 RBIs.

Read more: Detroit Free Press