Back in 2021, Britt Reid, then the Chiefs’ linebackers coach and son of celebrated Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, left crew headquarters drunk, smashed his truck into two automobiles stopped on the aspect of the interstate at 84 mph, and put a five-year previous Ariel Young right into a coma. Young sustained a traumatic mind harm, and 5 others, together with Reid had been injured in the crash. Two hours after the incident, Reid’s blood alcohol content material was nonetheless .113.
When legislation enforcement arrived at the scene, Reid instructed officers he had two to a few drinks along with taking his prescription Adderall. Though police say they noticed apparent indicators of impairment, Reid was taken to the hospital for surgical procedure on his groin and was not arrested.
Reid wouldn’t be arrested for a full two months, whereas native cops “investigated” the crash. As a lawyer who continuously represented folks accused of driving drunk, I can guarantee you that that’s not how issues usually go. DUI arrests, that are massive enterprise for some municipalities due to the ease of prosecution and the heavy fines imposed, are extra of an “arrest first and ask questions later” crime, and by no means as soon as in all my time in DUI courtroom did I come throughout an individual who induced a crash with severe accidents who wasn’t instantly arrested and, typically, handcuffed to their hospital mattress.
During the time cops and prosecutors had been dilly-dallying with the son of the Chiefs head coach, Ariel Young fought for her life in a hospital. Her household created a Go Fund Me to offset the astronomical value of her medical payments and the care she would probably want for the remainder of her life. More than a 12 months later, Young’s mom, Felicia Miller, described how Ariel’s life had been eternally modified.
“Her daughter drags her right foot when she walks and will soon see a doctor about leg braces. Ariel has poor balance. She’s in special education classes because she takes longer to process information. She also wears thick glasses that she didn’t need before.”
In November of 2022, Britt Reid ultimately plead responsible to 1 felony rely of drunk driving (which is much much less a cost than what I’ve seen folks equally located to Reid hit with, and which Ariel Young’s household didn’t consider was robust sufficient), and sentenced to a few years in jail, although the crime with which he was charged carried a sentence of as much as seven years, and if there was ever a case of aggravating circumstances, this gave the impression to be it.
And now, including insult to harm, Missouri Governor Mike Parson has commuted (i.e., shortened) Britt Reid’s sentence, saying, “Mr. Reid has completed his alcohol abuse treatment program and has served more prison time than most individuals convicted of similar offenses.”
I can let you know for a incontrovertible fact that, whereas that could be true in Missouri, it’s actually not true for different locations in the nation, the place DUI’s (particularly these involving severe harm) are sometimes charged as a lot increased crimes and the defendants sentenced to for much longer phrases in jail. One authorized web site described the penalty for DUI assault in Missouri, which happens when one other individual is injured as the results of a DUI, as a cost that carries as much as 15 years in jail. Injuring 5 folks, as Britt Reid did, might have probably meant 5 prices of DUI assault, every carrying an particular person sentence of as much as 15 years.
What’s worse, the commutation was finished over the obvious objection of Ariel Young’s household, whose lawyer instructed the Daily Beast, “The family is disgusted, I am disgusted, and I believe . . . that the majority of the people in the state of Missouri are disgusted by the governor’s actions. If you drink and drive and you put a little girl in a coma, you should have to serve the entire sentence that a judge of this state gave you.”
“But wait! It was a mistake! Britt Reid has been through treatment and deserves a second chance!” you say. But Britt Reid has already had a second probability. He was convicted of a earlier DUI in 2008. That time, he served 5 months in jail for that offense together with a road-rage incident the place he brandished a gun at one other driver.
And Britt Reid is just not the solely Reid son to have run-ins with the legislation. In November of 2007, whereas Andy Reid was teaching in Philadelphia, his son, Garrett Reid, was additionally sentenced to jail for a DUI crash that injured one other driver. According to police, Garrett Reid had heroin and greater than 200-pills in his automotive at the time of his arrest. He then additional confronted prices that he tried to smuggle roughly 90 prescription drugs into jail the identical week he was sentenced. During a sentencing listening to, the decide in Garrett Reid’s case in contrast the coach’s house to “a drug emporium” and questioned whether or not his grownup sons ought to dwell there. “There isn’t any structure there that this court can depend upon,” the decide mentioned earlier than sentencing Garrett to as much as 23 months in jail.
Garrett admitted that he favored the standing of being a drug seller, telling a probation officer in 2007, “I favored being the wealthy child in that space and having my very own high-status life. I might go wherever in the ‘hood. They all knew who I was. I enjoyed it. I liked being a drug dealer.” Garrett Reid was found dead in his dorm room at Eagles training camp in 2012.
If you’re questioning why you haven’t heard this earlier than, it’s as a result of the NFL media appears to have a bizarre aversion to asking Andy Reid questions about something apart from what he likes to eat and who his favourite rappers are. In 2023, USA Today’s Jarrett Bell wrote about the surreal Super Bowl press convention, the place Andy Reid, solely months after Britts’ arrest, was requested questions about how he takes his espresso, his favourite cheeseburger, and to call his three favourite rappers. No one requested about his youngsters’s historical past of recklessly injuring folks or how they preserve winding up on his crew’s payrolls. But hey, Andy Reid has a humorous mustache and wears Hawaiian shirts, so I suppose that’s adequate.
If Britt Reid is just not Andy Reid’s son, he’s arrested instantly for DUI at the scene of the horrific accident brought on by his consuming at crew headquarters. If Britt Reid is just not Andy Reid’s son, he’s sentenced to a a lot lengthier jail sentence. And if Britt Reid is just not Andy Reid’s son, his sentence for injuring 4 folks and placing a five-year previous woman in a coma is just not commuted by Missouri’s governor. Andy Reid’s silence all through all of it is craven and inexcusable. The media’s refusal to power him to remark, in the end, is equally as dangerous.
Families who battle with dependancy deserve our grace and help. There however for the grace of God and all that. And actually, rehabilitation and restoration needs to be at the forefront of our legal justice system in relation to dealing with addicts. But when different individuals are injured as the results of an addict’s actions, particularly a younger youngster, the addict have to be held to account, as ought to those that enabled the addict’s habits and, subsequently, the ensuing harm. NFL coaches reply laborious questions for a dwelling. It boggles perception that Andy Reid hasn’t been pressured to talk out in the wake of the harm brought on by his youngsters, which — if one decide is to be believed — originated in his house.
Deadspin reached out to the Kansas City Chiefs and Andy Reid for remark. At the time of publication, that they had not responded to our request.
Discussion about this post