Probation for blackmailer who demanded $15,000 from Dancing With The Stars champion Hines Ward
A 26-year-old Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty on Thursday to trying to extort Dancing With The Stars champion Hines Ward.
Josh Van Auker allegedly threatened to release evidence that Ward paid women for sex, unless the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver paid him $15,000 for the materials.
Van Auker was arrested last October in a sting operation involving Ward's personal assistant.
Overjoyed: Hines Ward and his partner Kym Johnson celebrated in 2011 with the Mirror Ball after winning Dancing With The Stars
Van Auker was charged with third degree felony attempted extortion, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, according to a report in TMZ.
A judge placed Van Auker on two years probation.
Share this article
Ward in May 2011 walked away with the coveted Mirror Ball trophy on season 12 of Dancing With The Stars.
Football star: Ward played 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and was a Super Bowl MVP
The stocky American football player wasn't one of the favourites to win the show, but captured the title with professional dance partner Kym Johnson.
Ward played for 14 seasons with the Steelers and became the team's all-time leader in receptions, receiving yardage and touchdown receptions.
He also was the Most Valuable Player of 2006's Super Bowl XL, in which his Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 21-10.
Applause: American football star Hines held the trophy aloft to the cheering audience, proving a popular winner
Steelers fans in the DWTS audience waved the team's colors in black and gold towels as they cheered on Ward and Johnson.
Ward was born in Seoul, South Korea, to a black father and Korean mother and has become an advocate to the acceptance of foreigners in Korea.
He had a brief cameo in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises and is a studio analyst for NBC's Football Night In America.
Most watched News videos
- Shocking moment woman is abducted by man in Oregon
- MMA fighter catches gator on Florida street with his bare hands
- Moment escaped Household Cavalry horses rampage through London
- Wills' rockstar reception! Prince of Wales greeted with huge cheers
- New AI-based Putin biopic shows the president soiling his nappy
- Vacay gone astray! Shocking moment cruise ship crashes into port
- Rayner says to 'stop obsessing over my house' during PMQs
- Ammanford school 'stabbing': Police and ambulance on scene
- Shocking moment pandas attack zookeeper in front of onlookers
- Columbia protester calls Jewish donor 'a f***ing Nazi'
- Helicopters collide in Malaysia in shocking scenes killing ten
- Prison Break fail! Moment prisoners escape prison and are arrested
