Chiefs and Ariel Young joint statement
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here’s the statement between the Chiefs &amp; the family of Ariel Young, the young girl who was critically injured in a multi-vehicle accident on Feb. 4 that involved Britt Reid, who was charged in April with driving while intoxicated. <a href="https://t.co/NDUSVVoCli">pic.twitter.com/NDUSVVoCli</a></p>&mdash; Nate Taylor (@ByNateTaylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/ByNateTaylor/status/1461781950495178752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Nice.

Good for them now put Britt in jail.

Good. Obviously, we all wish this wouldn’t have happened. Unfortunately, she can’t get back all that she lost, but I’m glad the Chiefs are attempting to make things better.

Very satisfying to see the team step up like this

I've had my daughter for almost 7 years. I am heart broken for her and the parents, whose moments like mine are going to be stolen and replaced with struggle by Andy's shitbird of a son.

That is good.

Glad to see the Chiefs doing the right thing.

fuck Britt Reid.

Well, it beats season tickets and a parking pass...

...but seriously, that is great. I'm surprised, as it could be taken as a admittance of responsibility by the Chiefs instead of just doing the right thing.

Reported. You've somehow bypassed the language filter

She’s already gone back to school? Holy shit. I’m sure it was in a limited fashion but still.

I assume this will remove the Chiefs from any further litigation in the matter, thus the statement.

Speaking of ... they just went up in price.

I was hoping that the Chiefs would step in and it's good to see that they have been working with the family behind the scenes. Good on them, and I hope Ariel and her family are able to live as normal a life as possible.

Morally/ethically the right decision by the Chiefs of course and probably a good legal decision as well because if this ever became a lawsuit, the discovery in terms of Britt Reid possibly drinking on the job at the Chiefs offices would have been a PR disaster.

Why would the Chiefs have any fault in this at all such that lawyers would have had to get involved?

If Britt were drinking on the job at some tiny mom and pop store instead of a multi-billion dollar NFL team, would that tiny mom and pop store get sued or owe the family anything?

If other employees at the mom and pop store saw him drinking and allowed him to drive himself from work intoxicated then yes.

Unless the Chiefs knew about it and even looked past it. Who knows? But it does open up a can of worms.

From an optimist perspective, the Chiefs want to do right by the family as much as they can. Nothing will ever change the situation, but at least the team is stepping up to do what they can,

From a pessimistic perspective, the Chiefs would like this whole affair to go away. If they can bury it by throwing money at it (one thing they have plenty of) and make it go bye bye, then so be it. Plus, if they can settle out of court, less of a chance they really get reamed by a jury.

Agreed. You know someone in the room was saying leave it to the lawyers.

It is/was a PR disaster, but the Chiefs didn't really HAVE to do anything. I'm not sure where the liability would lie, but I'm guessing solely with Britt Reid (real lawyers feel free to eviscerate me). Good on them that they did.

Even the pessimistic approach isn't the worst case scenario. That would have been some sort of smear campaign against the family.

Again, I don't think there is a ton of liability for the Chiefs here. Nobody instructed Britt to drive drunk. And having beers at work is no crime.

My first day at Cabela's happened to fall on the day of the annual retreat or whatever they called it. There was booze. And if anyone in the entirety of the planet isn't going to take any unnecessary risk, it's an Internal Audit department.

There was an instance a few years ago up here in Des Moines where a guy was overserved at a bar. The guy left the bar, got on 80 going the wrong way and ended up killing two police officers and a prisoner they were transporting.

That bar got sued and they ended up settling. So, the Chiefs could absolutely be held accountable if they knew of Britt's drinking issues and especially if they allowed it to happen on Chiefs' property.

Quick link for anyone interested:
https://www.weareiowa.com/article/ne...d-cd117171a24a

I agree, the Hunts didn't have to do this and it would have been an uphill battle to prove the Chiefs at fault. Sure enough there would have been some PR fallout but in reality, the ultimate responsibility calls on Britt. So what if he had a few beers at the office and more in the parkiing lot. You'll see after hours drinking going on at just about any company large or small. It's impractical to police every employee in every office for drinking.

No, the Hunts (and Chiefs) just did a good thing and they should be commended for it.

Why didn't the Reid family pay for all this stuff? Andy is plenty rich.

This. They probably knew he had a drinking problem. Was drinking with other Chief coaches. They have billions. Probably win any lawsuit. But……Pay them to get great publicity instead of the shitshow of bad publicity battling a lawsuit.

This isn't that hard. We're the Chiefs liable, probably not, but they were getting sued no matter what and the discovery could have been bad, see Washington Redskins... The family is taken care of and so is the situation. It's a business decision.

I'm pretty sure it's more than that for Andy.

Clark? I like to think it's both...

Yep, classy move.

Could not have said it better.

To me, the interesting thing here is the name of the lawyer for both the Chiefs and Ariel's family: Tom Porto.

I suspect he's related to Dick Porto, who used to be the estates and trusts lawyer for Baptist Hospital's charitable foundation. The Chiefs reunion dinner used to be done in concert with Baptist's Charitable foundation because former GM Jack Steadman's wife used to be on the board of this charity. When Baptist Hospital closed in the early 2000s, Tavia Hunt was a board member of the charitable foundation. Presumably, she worked with Dick Porto.

My guess is that Tom Porto is an estates and trusts lawyer, and the Chiefs funded a trust for Ariel's benefit. That's why he's the lawyer for both the Chiefs and the family.

How do I know this? My Dad used to be a Dr. at Baptist and worked with that charitable foundation. I chatted with Tavia at those dinners multiple times bc I knew her at UMKC.

I hope this can lead to healing on both ends.

I feel like it’s pretty clear this whole situation was hanging over the team in the Super Bowl and ever since. That’s why there was so much negative energy.

I get the hatred an anger directed at Britt Reid. But I’ve represented several people who decided to drive after drinking too much and then they injured or killed someone. My comments are not meant to excuse such conduct because there is no excuse. But I do hope to provide different perspective.

Keep in mind I’ve represented a number of people charged with really serious crimes. I represented a guy who electrocuted his infant son to get back at his mail order bride. I represented a guy who literally beat someone to death by stomping that guy’s head onto a linoleum-covered concrete floor. I represented a guy who killed someone who offered him a ride. I’ve walked into courtrooms and been literally the only person there for a person charged with a heinous crime. Not my favorite way to spend a work day but being in a courtroom full of people that literally hate you for speaking up for the rights of someone they hate is just part of the job.

And my DUI assault/homicide cases are just different. Most are people who have issues in their life or make bad decisions or just don’t think they’re impaired. And their remorse is almost universally overwhelming, which is quite different than just an evil SOB who’s facing sentencing for killing someone.

I remember one kid. He was 21 and had been drinking too much with friends. Young, drunk and male, he was hurtling down an ice-covered road at about 85+ mph and missed where the road turned. He wrapped his car around a phone pole. The car came to rest on the driver’s side so he was on the bottom. His friend was still seat-belted in above him, the blood running onto my client. The pictures were god-awful.

He pled and we went to sentencing and the State was arguing for some sentence and I was arguing for less and victims and family and everybody was in the courtroom crying and moaning and all carrying on. It came time for my client to speak and he sat there quietly for a bit of time. We had discussed how to best address the judge and he went completely off script. I will never forget it.

He said, in essence (it’s been 15+ years since this one but I still remember it): Judge, you have to send me to jail. I get that and I know that and I accept that. And the DA is arguing for a bunch of time and my lawyer is asking for less and (dead guy’s family) is asking for time and my family is asking for less. And I don’t really care. I don’t care how much time you sentence me to because the fact is, I killed my best friend. I’d known him for years. We’d ridden snow machines and ATVs together. We went through High School together. And we talked and thought about our life together and I killed him. I killed him. And nothing you do today will ever take that away. And every night when I sleep, I see him in my dreams, his dead body above me, blood dripping from his head onto me. And I knew he was dead. I knew I’d killed my best friend. And judge, you could put me in prison for the rest of my life or you could let me out tomorrow but nothing will ever take away the fact that I killed my best friend. And no prison you send me to will ever be as hellish as the knowledge that I did.”

When he got done, I think the only dry eye in the courtroom was the DA because he was a heartless son of a bitch. But I think about that case every so often and I think about my other DUI homicides/assaults. Maybe Brett (Britt? I don’t know) is just a callous, heartless bastard. All of us have made mistakes, some of them bad, a few of us really bad. But I bet very few have made a mistake that literally cripples a young girl for the rest of her life. And if Brett is anything like my other clients who face similar charges, the anger, hostility, and vitriol aimed at him is absolutely nothing compared to what he directs at himself.

I feel very bad for that girl and her family. She did nothing to deserve this. And Brett absolutely needs to pay a price for his crime. But I also suspect that Brett is ashamed and embarrassed and tremendously guilty for his crime and that for the rest of his life, that girl’s face will haunt his dreams.

Don't leave me hanging after all of that. What was the sentence?

Alaska does not have a straight ‘DUI homicide’ statute. Instead, DUI homicides are a sub-section between manslaughter and murder 2. Sentences ranged from 8-15 years depending on a variety of factors, at least for first offenses. Manslaughter had a sentence of 5-20 years and murder 2 was 10-99 years. The State demanded a plea to murder 2* and the State wanted 18 years. We were arguing for 10 years, the minimum allowed under the murder 2 statute. The judge gave my guy 11 years with some time suspended.



* there were other people in the car and they were injured, although not severely. Each person, though, was a felony assault charge that would require a consecutive sentence. The State would not agree to manslaughter but they would dismiss all of the other charges so in one sense, it was kind of a wash.

Why are the Chiefs liable at all?

Even if Britt somehow drank on the job, it's not as if this is allowed by the Chiefs. This is not a bar, who might be held responsible for serving someone more alcohol than would be considered reasonably safe.

I don't understand how this is anyone's fault but Britt Reid?

Kinda the way of the world now. Personal responsibility isn’t so much a thing anymore. Hell, half the people on CP wanted to blame Andy for the actions of his grown man son.

To be clear, if someone in upper management or whatnot knew that Britt Reid had been drinking at the faculty and knew he was driving, that’s a different story but on face value alone, this seems to be all on BR.

Glad the Chiefs took care of this girl. PR move or not, it was the right thing to do.

the best argument that the Chiefs are liable is Britt Reid's history of drug use. That argument would run that the Chiefs should have known that Reid could pose a risk of falling back into substance abuse in a high-pressure job like NFL football coach. And substance abusers tend to pose more risk to others. thus the Chiefs are somewhat responsible for creating this higher risk to other people.

I think it's a thin argument.

I'm glad the Chiefs (Hunts) are doing what they can to make amends to Ariel and her family, and everyone has agreed to it.