GOP governor commutes sentence of ex-NFL coach who injured 5-year-old while drunk driving

Gov. Mike Parson (R-MO) has commuted the sentence of a former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach who was jailed for a drunk driving crash that seriously injured a 5-year-old girl.

According to Katie Moore and Jonathan Sherman writing for The Kansas City Star, Britt Reid "will be under house arrest until Oct. 31, 2025, according to Parson’s office. Reid, who is the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of driving while intoxicated, causing serious injury, for the Feb. 4, 2021, crash."

"Ariel Young, who was 5 years old at the time, was a passenger in one of two vehicles that Britt Reid’s pickup slammed into on the side of the entrance ramp along Interstate 435, near the team’s practice facility," said the report. "Prosecutors said Britt Reid was driving 83 mph two seconds before the collision and 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. Ariel was in a coma for 11 days."

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A spokesperson for Parson explained that the commutation was issued because "Mr. Reid has completed his alcohol abuse treatment program and has served more prison time than most individuals convicted of similar offenses."

Parson famously also issued pardons for Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the vigilante couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis. Mark McCloskey, who worked as a personal injury attorney, later went on to run unsuccessfully for Senate in the state.

The governor has also faced a number of other scandals in recent months, including accusations he is illegally using his office to interfere in primaries.