Britt Reid, the former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach, is expected to plead guilty Monday to felony driving while intoxicated and causing a 2021 multi-vehicle crash that severely injured a 5-year-old child passenger in a separate car.
In admitting his guilt, Reid, 37, would likely avoid a criminal trial that was scheduled to begin Sept. 26 at the Jackson County Circuit Court in downtown Kansas City. He could face up to seven years in prison.
A court entry Tuesday showed that Reid was scheduled to enter the plea Monday.
The crash happened Feb. 4, 2021. Reid’s pickup truck struck two vehicles on the side of an entrance ramp along Interstate 435, near the team’s practice facility, prosecutors alleged. The crash injured two children, including Ariel Young, who suffered traumatic brain injury.
“The five victims of this crime are relieved that the defendant has chosen to plead guilty and are hopeful that the defendant receives the maximum sentence allowed by law,” said Tom Porto, the attorney for the victims.
Reid, who is the son of head coach Andy Reid, was driving 83 mph two seconds before the collision. Prosecutors said Reid had a serum blood alcohol content of 0.113 about two hours after the crash. The legal limit is 0.08, according to Missouri law.
After the crash, a Kansas City police officer noticed that Reid’s eyes were “bloodshot and red,” according to prosecutors. Reid confessed to the officer at the scene that he had been drinking and had “two to three drinks.”
Reid suffered a groin injury and underwent emergency surgery after being taken to a nearby hospital.
In November, the Kansas City Chiefs and Ariel’s family reached a confidential financial agreement to cover her ongoing medical treatment and other expenses.
Ariel sustained a traumatic brain injury that included swelling and bleeding. The crash left her hospitalized in critical condition for an extended period. She was in a coma for 11 days and released from the hospital on April 2, 2021.
The crash happened three days before the Chiefs lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. Andy Reid and other team leaders said after the game that the crash had no impact on the team’s performance.
Prosecutors alleged Reid’s vehicle struck a Chevrolet Impala, which he said he did not see because its lights were off. Reid said he continued south on the interstate and his vehicle then rear-ended a Chevy Traverse at 67.7 mph, court documents show. He called 911 moments later, according to court documents.
Ariel’s mother, Felicia Miller, had arrived to help her cousin, whose Impala had run out of gas and stalled. Miller said she got back into the driver’s seat of her Traverse and looked in the rear view mirror when she saw the headlights of an approaching vehicle.
Reid told an initial responding officer that he “was looking over his left shoulder to evaluate traffic so he could merge,” according to prosecutors.
The impact of the rear-end crash momentarily knocked Miller unconscious after the airbag struck her and broke her seat. When she woke, Miller called for her children. She found Ariel in the Traverse under the third seat that had folded over.
Ariel was unresponsive. An ambulance arrived at the scene and rushed the girl to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
At the time criminal charges were filed, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said that Reid did not receive any favorable treatment from Kansas City police or her office.
Baker said the changes in Missouri’s DWI laws limited the number of charges that the prosecutor’s office could pursue, given the evidence in the case.
During the hearing on Monday, Circuit Court Judge Charles H. McKenzie is expected set a date for the sentencing. Reid would remain free on bond.
