KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Former Chiefs assistant linebackers coach Britt Reid has been charged with driving while intoxicated in reference to a Feb. 4 crash that left a 5-year-old girl with a traumatic brain injury. And as a result of a change in Missouri regulation 4 years in the past, the utmost quantity of jail time he might face if convicted is seven years.
“My job is to work inside Missouri regulation, and that is the best cost I can degree below Missouri regulation for the details and circumstances that I’ve for this case,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker instructed 41 Motion Information in an unique interview.
The Jackson County Prosecuting Lawyer’s Workplace introduced Monday the Reid, 35, has been charged with DWI-Critical Bodily Damage, a category D felony with a possible jail sentence of 1 to seven years.
Missouri lawmakers modified the state’s DWI legal guidelines in 2017 once they overhauled the state’s felony code. The modifications introduced “unintended penalties,” in line with Chris Mann, a Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, lawyer and Moms In opposition to Drunk Driving (MADD) advocate.
“The change within the regulation has affected what occurs when there are a number of injured events in a crash or a number of fatalities in a crash,” Mann mentioned. “Previous to 2017 (prosecutors) might have charged quite a few counts of assault for the a number of people who have been harm on this incident, however due to the change within the regulation, this single cost is probably the most they’ll do.”
MADD yearly publishes a “report card” for every state, primarily based on state legal guidelines and initiatives which might be aimed to scale back drunk driving. In 2019, Missouri scored a 3.5 out of 5. Kansas scored a 4.5.
The report mentioned whereas Missouri grew to become the 18th state to require ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers, the state “took a seismic step backwards by defunding lifesaving sobriety checkpoints.”
There currently is a proposal being debated to ban sobriety checkpoints within the state.
“If we will be sure that instrument remains to be obtainable for regulation enforcement, then we need to do all the things we will,” Meghan Carter, director of area operations for MADD Missouri, mentioned. “Each life misplaced, each particular person injured is 100% preventable.”
