Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell said Monday that he had learned from the mistakes that led to him being charged with drunken driving last October and was ready to move forward.

Ridgewell was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving along with Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson a day after Portland's season came to an end in late October, but the city of Lake Oswego dropped the charges against Ridgewell in January after a judge ruled that officers did not have probable cause or reasonable suspicion to detain Ridgewell.

Gleeson plead no contest to the charges and was allowed to enter an alcohol diversion program.

While Ridgewell said Monday that he was happy that all the facts in his case "came out" and that the charges were ultimately dropped, he also apologized to fans and said that he wanted to learn from the arrest.

"It's something I want to put behind me and learn from," Ridgewell said. "Hopefully, we can move forward certainly as a team and as an organization. I'm looking forward to a good season."

The arrests occurred after Gleeson rear-ended another car in Lake Oswego and called Ridgewell for help, according to police. Ridgewell, who had been driving home after an outing with Gleeson, saw Gleeson's crashed BMW and pulled over.

Police determined that Ridgewell had not witnessed the crash and planned to send him home, but officers never made it clear to Ridgewell that he could leave and later asked him to perform an eye test before arresting both him and Gleeson.

Ridgewell's attorneys successfully argued that all evidence gathered should be suppressed because the police did not have probable cause or reasonable suspicion to detain Ridgewell and should have made it clear to him that he was free to leave.

Even though the charges were dropped, Ridgewell said as captain and a leader on the Timbers roster, he holds himself to a "higher standard" and was "disappointed" that he put himself in that situation.

"Over your career, you go through these highs and lows," Ridgewell said. "You've got to hold yourself to a higher standard, which I do. This is why I was disappointed, obviously, of what happened. I'm obviously glad that the facts came out."

Still, while he is committed to learning from the arrest, Ridgewell said he is ready to move forward and is focused on preparing for the 2017 MLS season.

"I can stand up to these sort of things and take it on the chin and realize what happened and what went down and look toward the future," Ridgewell said.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg