From experience, I know a lot of people are already frustrated about the scant information that has come out about Britt Reid and the curious and shocking wreck he was involved in that critically injured a 5-year-old girl.
The police have said the investigation is going to take weeks. Well, don’t be surprised if it takes months.
I’ll bet a lot of people are thinking that Reid will be getting preferential treatment and that police will drag out the investigation in an attempt to let the case get stale in the minds of the public.
If I hadn’t followed another horrific case three years ago, I would think the same thing. But mainly because of that earlier case, I believe the police investigation into the Reid case genuinely will take a long time. There are many factors involved, including toxicology tests, exactly how the crash occurred and witness accounts. While the public is eager to know things like Reid’s blood alcohol content and if he was on the phone when the wreck happened, the police will be painstakingly assembling all the facts and preparing a case file. Once that is done, they will present it to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Don’t expect information to be leaked in dribs and drabs. If the police department let information come out piecemeal, it would probably damage the case. What we should all want here is for the police to do a thorough job and submit a complete and coherent file to Jean Peters Baker. And I can assure you of this: If Baker gets a complete and coherent file, she will play this case absolutely straight. Neither Britt Reid nor Andy Reid will be getting a break from this fearless prosecutor.
The key to this case will be the police investigation. If it’s done right, I believe justice will be served. If the police screw it up, justice won’t be served.
Now, let me take you back to the case that serves as a guideline for how long it takes to conduct a thorough investigation of a case involving alcohol, drugs and serious injury or death.
Many of you will remember the case of the guy who, on Sept. 23, 2017, hurtled down the 23rd Street ramp from I-435 at a speed of 90 miles an hour.
The man, who was driving a 2015 Dodge Ram pickup, had been frustrated by the relatively slow pace of traffic on northbound I-435 after a Chiefs’ game. Finally unburdened of traffic in front, he roared down that ramp and slammed into an SUV traveling on 23rd Street. The SUV then plowed into two other vehicles, before the Dodge Ram pickup ended up against a rock wall all the way across the intersection. After the crash, the driver walked around his truck, kicking at it and never looking back at the havoc he had wreaked or bothering to check on the occupants of the other vehicles.
I started writing about that case not long after the crash occurred. I could not understand why the man’s identity didn’t become public and why it was taking the police so long to conduct the investigation. But, as with Britt Reid, drinking and/or drugs were involved, and it’s just a fact of life that the results of toxicology tests don’t come quickly.
It wasn’t until Dec. 1 that I even found out the driver’s name and city of residence — Terry A. Gray of Independence — and that was not because he had been charged but because he was named as defendant in two civil suits seeking damages as a result of the crash.
It was about the same time — more than two months after the crash — that the police department turned the case file over to Baker. Charges were finally filed on Jan. 4, 2018, almost three and a half months after the crash.
Gray was charged with two counts of causing death while driving under the influence and two counts of DWI resulting in serious personal injury. Bond was set at $75,000, but he was able to come up with $7,500, which enabled him to make bond through a bond company.
Then the damnedest thing happened: In early March, two months after being charged, Gray died. He was 51 years old, and it turned out he had cancer — which might have been a factor in his “fuck-the-world” attitude on Sept. 23.
In a March 7, 2018, post about Gray’s death, I wrote: “Sometimes cases don’t end conventionally or neatly. This is such a one.”
**
So, I would urge everyone to be patient regarding the Britt Reid case. The temptation will be to think the fix is in and the case is going to disappear into thin air. It won’t. The facts will come out. Britt Reid has had d.u.i.’s before, and he’s obviously got a drinking and prescription drug problem. KCPD and Jean Peters Baker know full well that the public is watching this case and that it’s going to be remembered as long as this Super Bowl is remembered.
Britt Reid is in serious trouble, and I believe KCPD and Jean Peters Baker will do the right thing. It’s just going to take time to hold Reid to account. I don’t think his father’s lofty status is going to help him this time, especially if little Ariel should die.
We’re all hoping that doesn’t happen. Near the top of every Kansas Citian’s wish list now is that Ariel will regain consciousness and, in time, make a full recovery.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I value your perspective and insights, as always, but in context of your thoughtful approach to the accident investigation I had a strong reaction to the statement that “he’s obviously got a drinking and prescription drug problem.”
Details matter when talking about addiction and substance abuse, too. At this point, the data we have about prescriptions is Reid’s claim that he – like scores of adults with ADHD – has a valid prescription for Adderall. ADHD symptoms can make intolerable a tedious job that involves long stretches staring at a screen, which is the unsexy reality of coaching football at a high level, where it’s common to spend more than an hour analyzing video of a single play. It’s valid to debate whether over-medication for ADHD in adults is a problem, but it’s medically legitimate under current standards of psychiatric practice.
Similarly, while there are strong indications Britt Reid’s choices Thursday night embody the narcissism that is the most intractable aspect of addiction, we’ll likely never know that answer. In the age of medication-assisted treatment for opiate addiction it’s also possible the reality is more complex. Plenty of serial DUI offenders are just jerks who derive little to no benefit from treatment for addiction.
Net, just like it’s tempting to fill in blanks in the investigation, it can be dangerous to trust our instincts to speculate about medical and mental health considerations.
That’s a very valid point, Surachi. I may have overstepped there. I think he’s certainly got a drinking problem, though. A reasonable assumption is he was drinking at the stadium after practice and then got behind the wheel.