KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The former Kansas City assistant coach Britt Reid pleaded guilty Monday to one felony count of driving while intoxicated resulting in serious physical injury as part of a plea deal that will cap his jail time at four years.
Reid, a son of Kansas City Coach Andy Reid, admitted in Jackson County (Mo.) Circuit Court that he had been drinking before he crashed into two cars that were pulled over on an entrance ramp to Interstate 435, near the team’s practice facility, in February 2021. One of the vehicles had stalled, and the driver called a cousin for help.
Shortly before the crash, Reid was driving 83.9 miles per hours in a 65-m.p.h. zone, according to the charging document. An officer conducted several sobriety tests and Reid showed signs of impairment. His blood alcohol concentration two hours after the crash was 0.113, the statement said. The legal limit to operate a motor vehicle in Missouri is 0.08.
He told police that he had “two or three drinks” and had taken Adderall before leaving Kansas City’s team facility.
Ariel Young, a passenger in one of the cars who was 5 years old at the time, sustained, among other injuries, a severe traumatic brain injury, brain contusions and subdural hematomas, a condition where blood collects between the skull and the surface of the brain.
Wearing a blue suit on Monday, Reid, 37, turned to address Young’s family as he entered his plea.
“I regret what I did. I made a huge mistake,” Reid said. “I apologize to the family. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone that night.”
Reid had faced up to seven years in prison, but by agreeing to plead guilty he reduced his possible penalty, which could now range from probation to a maximum of four years in prison. While Brady Twenter, an assistant Jackson County prosecutor, said Monday that the “plea offer is in the best interest of justice,” Young’s family blasted the deal.
Felicia Miller, Young’s mother, told the judge that she and her family opposed the plea agreement. Miller and five other supporters wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Justice for Ariel.”
“My family and I are opposed to the plea deal. I don’t think he should receive it,” Miller said. “We are not OK with it.”
Young was in a coma for 11 days and in the hospital for two months after the crash. In November 2021, the Kansas City N.F.L. franchise came to a confidential settlement to cover Young’s ongoing medical treatment and provide “long-term financial stability.”
“The five victims of this crime are outraged that the prosecutor is not seeking the maximum sentence allowable by law. The defendant is a prior offender whose actions caused a five year old girl to be in a coma and seriously injured three others,” said Tom Porto, a lawyer for the family.
Judge Charles H. McKenzie of the Jackson County Circuit Court is scheduled to sentence Reid on Oct. 28.
Missouri law allows McKenzie the discretion of sentencing Reid to serve just 120 days in jail and place him on probation for five years. Prosecutors recommended Reid serve the entire four years in prison.
Reid’s lawyer, J.R Hobbs, released a statement after the proceeding.
“Mr. Reid continues to be remorseful for his conduct and hopes that his plea brings some sense of justice to all he has affected,” Hobbs said.
Reid served a six-month sentence after his 2007 arrest on D.U.I. charges in Pennsylvania, where Andy Reid was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2012. Seven months before that arrest, he had been charged with gun and drug crimes that stemmed from a road rage incident that same year.
Reid was sentenced on the same day his older brother, Garrett, received up to 23 months in jail for crashing into another car while driving under the influence of heroin. Garrett Reid died of an accidental heroin overdose at the Eagles’ training camp in 2012.
