Families slam ex-NFL coach's plea deal over DWI crash that left girl with serious brain injuries

Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — The family of the girl who was critically injured in a car crash last year involving former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid slammed prosecutors for agreeing to a plea deal in exchange for a lower prison sentence.

Reid, 37, pleaded guilty Monday to driving while impaired in connection with the Feb. 4, 2021, incident. Reid was driving his pickup truck near Arrowhead Stadium and struck two vehicles that were stopped on the side of the highway.

Five people were injured in the crash including then 5-year-old Ariel Young. She suffered “life-threatening injuries” and a “severe traumatic brain injury, a parietal fracture, brain contusions and subdural hematomas,” according to court documents.

Reid, who faces up to four years in prison as part of his deal, apologized in court for his actions. Ariel’s family and the other victims, however, slammed him and prosecutors for not going to trial.

“The five victims of this crime are outraged the prosecuting attorney is not seeking the maximum sentence allowable by law,” Tom Porto, the attorney for the victims, said in a statement.

Prior to taking the guilty plea, Reid, the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, was expected to begin trial on Sept. 26. He had faced up to seven years in prison.

Reid, who was also injured in the crash, had a blood alcohol content of 0.113 and was driving 84 miles an hour at the time of the incident, according to court documents. At the time of the crash, he was the team’s linebackers coach.

Reid was released by the Chiefs shortly after the incident.

This was not the first time that Reid has been in trouble with the law over a driving-related incident.

He pleaded guilty to simple assault and flashing a gun at another driver in a road rage incident in 2007, according to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, court records, and served prison time. While in prison, he also pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of a controlled substance from a separate incident, according to court documents.

Reid was ticketed for speeding in 2014 and 2018 and paid both fines.

During Monday’s plea hearing, Reid said he regretted what he did and “made a huge mistake,” according to ABC affiliate KMBC. He then faced Ariel’s family and said, “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone that night,” KMBC reported.

When the judge asked the family if they had anything to say, Felicia Miller, Ariel’s mother, said, “My family and I are opposed to the plea deal. I don’t think he should receive it.”

Reid’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 28.

In November 2021, the Chiefs and Porto announced that the team worked out a plan to help pay for Ariel’s medical care.

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Emmys 2022: Lizzo is officially halfway to EGOT status

Chris Haston/NBC

Lizzo is two awards away from being the newest EGOT member.  The singer took home the Emmy for Outstanding Competition Program for Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls Monday night.

Lizzo choked back tears as she joyfully called upon her “Big Grrrls” to join her on the stage.  “The trophy is nice, but my emotion for these people who are on the stage with me — the stories they shared, they are not unique,” Lizzo expressed. “They just don’t get the platform.”

The “About Damn Time” singer continued, “Someone fat like me. Black like me. Beautiful like me… If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I would be like, ‘You’re going to see that person.  But, b****, it’s going to have to be you!”

Lizzo noted that her show has not only changed her life, but the lives of her Big Grrrls “forever” by turning them all into “Emmy Award-winning superstars who are going on a world tour!”

The singer also took a moment to shout out her late father, Michael Jefferson, who died in 2009 when she was 21 years old.  Lizzo pointed to the sky as she shouted, “Daddy, I love you!”

Lizzo ended her speech by leading her dancers into a spunky cheer before hugging everyone on stage.

All the “Juice” singer has to do now is win an Oscar and a Tony Award to earn EGOT status — she already has a Grammy.  Actually, she has three!

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Halle Bailey grows up as the star of 'The Little Mermaid': “I had come out of this cocoon with Ariel”

The Walt Disney Company

Halle Bailey has enjoyed musical success with her older sister Chloe as the duo Chloe x Halle, and now she feels she’s maturing as a woman with her starring role in The Little Mermaid.

Bailey portrays the underwater Disney princess Ariel in the upcoming live-action film.

“I’d definitely say coming into this film I was a lot more, I think, just young-minded and a bit more not sure of myself so much,” the 22-year-old entertainer tells People. “The whole experience of filming, in more ways than one, mirrored Ariel’s journey of finding herself and her voice.”

Disney debuted the official teaser trailer Friday at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, and it earned over 104 million global views, according to Variety.

Zendaya, Halle Berry, Keke Palmer, Nicki Minaj and Amanda Gorman were among the celebrities praising the clip on Twitter.

In the teaser trailer, Bailey swims under water, leads viewers through her treasure trove and sings some of the lyrics to the iconic song “Part of Your World.”

“I remember at the end of filming, wrap day, I was just sobbing because I truly felt like I had come out of this cocoon with Ariel,” Bailey adds.

She says the film has “changed my perspective on everything” and “impacted my life in so many ways.” Bailey hopes that Black girls will be inspired by her performance.

“The fact that now it’s getting to be played by me, a person who looks like me, woman of color, I’m just like, wow, I’m so grateful what it will do for all the other little Black and brown boys and girls who will see themselves in me,” she says.

The Little Mermaid opens in theaters May 26, 2023.

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Saweetie thought she would be with Quavo for ‘the rest of our lives’

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Saweetie has opened up about her past relationship with Quavo, saying, “I thought we was gonna spend the rest of our lives together.”

The “Best Friend” rapper made the comment on Yung Miami‘s YouTube series, Caresha Please.

“With him, I just knew it was the one. It was different … I was just hella enthralled with who he was as a human. Even if he wasn’t a rapper I would have still been in love with him. It was one of those things,” Saweetie added.

The two-time Grammy nominee says the emotional wounds are now starting to heal after their breakup.

“I’m much better than last year. I feel like I had to overcome a lot last year and I’m finally getting back to my centered self,” said the California MC continued.

“I lost someone who I loved. You know, when you think someone is your soul mate, and you don’t end up with them, it’s hard,” she told the City Girls member.

“A lot of people thought that I was just having fun and the single life, but I was hurt. Like, I really loved him, and I was just doing a lot of soul searching,” Saweetie said on the show. “My problem is, I be thinking about like 10 years from now we gon’ have this, this and that. So like when they don’t happen, I be like … my dreams be, like, shattered.”

Despite the painful ending, Saweetie shared that she felt she “learned how to be a woman.”

“I [was] raised in a really tough environment, both of my parents were tough. But since I was in love, I was like, it’s time to step it up as a woman,” she explained.

The couple started dating in 2018, and Saweetie announced their split in March 2021.

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Simon Cowell blames Barry Manilow for Jennifer Hudson's 'American Idol' loss

Warner Bros./Chris Millard

It’s arguably hard to remember now, seeing as she’s got EGOT status to her name, but Jennifer Hudson only placed sixth on American Idol.

On the debut of The Jennifer Hudson Show Monday, in their first sit down since her less-than-stellar performance, JHud chatted with Simon Cowell about that fateful elimination.

“That night, I will never forget,” said the tough-talking former Idol judge. “I was thinking, ‘Who chose stupid Barry Manilow Week?” Cowell said, rolling his eyes. “Wasn’t me!”

“It wasn’t my idea,” he insisted.

Hudson recalled the song she performed was “Weekend in New England,” about which Cowell recalled thinking, “Not a great song.”

“Not your fault,” he said.

Hudson then said Cowell “flipped the script” on her by asking her a deep question: “If you were going to go back in time, would you have changed the song, or kept things the way they were?”

Hudson said no: “Because that song led me to get Dreamgirls, hon.” Hudson won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 2006 film.

Hudson explained, “By the time I was eliminated, I felt like I got an opportunity to display who I was as an artist, so I was OK with being eliminated.”

“And then once I was, I was like, ‘You know what? You’re walking away with your talent. You’re walking away with your gift.’ This competition may be over, but … your love and your drive isn’t.”

JHud added, “Too often people give up and think that’s the end of the road and I said, ‘No, I’ll be back. And I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but I will sing my way to it.'”

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Aretha Franklin was tracked by the FBI due to her civil rights activism

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Newly unsealed documents reveal that the FBI tracked Aretha Franklin because she was involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

A 270-page document shows the FBI paid special attention to the Queen of Soul’s many performances for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference civil rights organization.

The shows for the SCLC took place in Atlanta and Memphis between 1967 and 1968 and were labeled as “communist infiltration” events.

The FBI also tracked a scheduled performance at a Black Panther Party event that Aretha eventually canceled.

Bobby Seale, Chairman of the Black Panther Party, has directed the Los Angeles Black Panther Party to initiate plans for a major rally culminating in free food distribution to the poor black people in Los Angeles,” the document reads. “Source also advised that Gwen Goodloe wanted to contact Negro singing stars Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack to possibly assist in the event.”

The FBI also linked the 18-time Grammy winner to the Black Liberation Army after reportedly finding Franklin’s address in BLA’s organization documents.

The bureau called the BLA a “quasi-military group composed of small guerrilla units employing the tactics of urban guerrilla warfare against the established order with a view toward achieving revolutionary change in America.” Due to insufficient evidence, the FBI concluded that Franklin’s association with the BLA could not be determined.

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Chadwick Boseman and 'Black-ish' stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross named Disney Legends

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The late Chadwick Boseman and Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross were named Disney Legends over the weekend at the D23 Expo: Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, CA.

Boseman’s brother, Derrick Boseman, accepted the award on his brother’s behalf.

“I think about how he honored our parents. How he honored his family. How he honored even his friends, and he made sure that his friends had good careers,” Boseman said, according to Variety. “How he honored all the contracts that he signed. He honored them with his blood, his sweat, his tears, as he played these roles and he was taking chemo at the same time.”

The Disney Legends Award is given to an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the Disney legacy. Boseman, who died in 2020 from cancer, was recognized posthumously for his role as King T’Challa in Black Panther.

Anderson, who grew up near Disneyland in Compton, CA, remembered how Disney inspired him. “Disney has always been a part of my life, my upbringing, my childhood and it has informed me and allowed me to be the entertainer and the man that I am today,” the eight-time NAACP Image Award winner said, according to Deadline. “Disney has taught all of us to dream, and to dream big.”

Ross thanked Disney for giving a platform to Black-ish that “truly changed the landscape of modern television.”

“It feels really legendary to advocate for and breath life into a joyful Black woman for eight years on a great show,” the 49-year-old actress said. 

She also hopes Black-ish paves the way for “more Black women-centered stories that reflect the truth and diversity of who we are in the world.”

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Gucci Mane and Keyshia Ka’oir are expecting their second child

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Gucci Mane and his wife, Keyshia Ka’oir, are celebrating an upcoming new addition to their family. Keyshia announced on Instagram she is expecting their second child.

“Let’s Have Another Baby ICE Needs Somebody To Play With,” she captioned a video of her showing her husband a positive pregnancy test. The clip was set to the music of Queen Naija’s 2018 track, “Mama’s Hand.”

The news comes months after Keyshia expressed she wanted another child. “I need me anotha one,” she wrote on Instagram in December, alongside a series of throwback pics when she was nine months pregnant with her and Gucci’s first child, Ice.

The couple will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary on October 17. They got married in 2017 in Miami in a lavish ceremony captured by BET’s 10-episode reality series The Mane Event.

In June, the 42-year-old MC dropped the track “Mrs.Davis” in praise of his wife. He’s also declared his love for Keyshia on Instagram.

“We went from kissing in a jail to kissing on a jet. I got the best wife in the world. it’s our 5 year anniversary. I love you Mrs. Davis,” Gucci previously commented.

“I’m so grateful and proud to call you my wife,” he continued. “I’ll always appreciate you and never forget how you stayed in my corner when things were bad. We the perfect team and thanks for keeping me inspired and motivated. Luv you 4L @keyshiakaoir.”

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