‘Status, privilege’: Prosecutor, MO politicians blast Parson’s commutation of Britt Reid

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s commutation of former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid’s prison sentence came under harsh criticism on Saturday, with Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker saying Parson freed a man of “status, privilege and connections.”

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican running for governor, called the decision “not a good look” for Parson.

Reid, the son of Chiefs Coach Andy Reid, was convicted of driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that severely injured a 5-year-old girl in February 2021. He had been serving a three-year prison sentence but will now remain under house arrest through October 2025.

Baker in a statement on Saturday said Parson did not contact those directly affected by the case, including the family of Ariel Young, the 5-year-old girl who spent 11 days in a coma following the crash.

“There simply can be no response that explains away the failure to notify victims of the offender. To Ariel’s family, I offered my resolve to continue to fight for just sentences for those who injure others due to the reckless decision to drink alcohol and operate a motor vehicle,” Baker said.

Baker, a Democrat, contrasted the Republican governor’s decision to offer clemency to Reid with his refusal to not commute the sentences of Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson, two Black men who were wrongly imprisoned and later freed.

“Finally, to my community, I simply say I am saddened by the self-serving political actions of the Governor and the resulting harm that it brings to the system of justice,” Baker said.

“But my office will fight for just outcomes regardless of social status, privilege or one’s connections. This system of justice still stands and will prevail over any fleeting political knock. Of this I am certain.”

Parson’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

On Friday, Johnathan Shiflett, a spokesman for Parson, said in a statement: “Mr. Reid has completed his alcohol abuse treatment program and has served more prison time than most individuals convicted of similar offenses.”

Parson, who first made his way in politics as Polk County sheriff, is a Chiefs season ticketholder. He has issued more pardons than his recent predecessors as his office clears a backlog of applications, but the commutation of Reid was at least the second instance in which the governor had exercised his power to help prominent individuals.

He previously pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who waved guns in front of Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Parson is also weighing whether to pardon or commute the sentence of Eric DeValkenaere, the first Kansas City police officer ever convicted of killing a Black man.

Ariel Young was a passenger in one of two vehicles that Reid’s pickup slammed into on the side of the entrance ramp along Interstate 435, near the team’s practice facility.

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.

In a statement, Ashcroft said that while he doesn’t have all the facts, the commutation isn’t an action he would have taken.

“Britt Reid’s reckless decision to drive drunk left Ariel Young with a lifelong traumatic brain injury and while the Reid family obviously holds a special place in the hearts of Missourians and Kansas City Chiefs’ fans, that does not entitle them to special treatment. My heart goes out to the Young family,” Ashcroft said.

Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, a Parkville Republican who chairs the Missouri Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote on social media on Saturday that he “could not imagine the pain this must cause” to Ariel’s family.

“This is not justice,” he wrote.