TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Ruling Judge: Reids' Home 'Like A Drug Emporium'

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, The Associated Press

Published: November 2, 2007

NORRISTOWN, Pa. - A judge who sentenced Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid's sons to jail Thursday likened the coach's home to "a drug emporium" and questioned whether his adult sons should live there.

"There isn't any structure there that this court can depend upon," Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill said before sentencing 22-year-old Britt Reid to up to 23 months in jail plus probation.

"I'm saying this is a family in crisis," O'Neill said.

Earlier Thursday, O'Neill sentenced 24-year-old Garrett Reid, a drug addict and dealer who said he got a thrill out of selling drugs in "the 'hood," to up to 23 months in jail for smashing into another motorist's car while high on heroin.

O'Neill said that searches of the Reid family's house and vehicles found a long list of drugs, guns and ammunition.

While police found only weapons and ammunition - and not drugs - at the house, O'Neill apparently based his remarks on Britt Reid's statement that he once mistakenly grabbed a Vicodin tablet instead of health supplements out of a pill drawer at the home.

He said both boys had been overmedicated throughout much of their lives and that Britt got hooked on painkillers when he suffered a football injury in high school.

Andy Reid and his wife, Tammy, were in court but declined to comment. The judge said the parents clearly loved and supported their children and had tried many times during the years to get them help.

"Andy and Tammy are supportive of their son. That has been their position since this all began. He will not comment on it," Garrett Reid's defense attorney, Ross Weiss, said before the judge's comments.

Both Weiss and Britt Reid's attorney, William Winning, declined to comment after the hearing. Andy and Tammy Reid quickly were escorted by sheriff's deputies and their personal bodyguard through the courthouse basement.

Both sons lived at their parents' home in the suburb of Villanova at the time of their arrests.

Andy Reid took a five-week leave from the Eagles in the offseason to deal with his family's troubles. He has routinely declined to discuss his sons' legal problems, but said he would not resign from the team because of them.

Thursday, Britt Reid said everything he did, he did without his parents' knowledge, but O'Neill questioned that.

Both Reids can apply for a special drug court program that would require them to report to authorities regularly, undergo rigorous drug testing and hold down jobs.

The coach's two sons got into separate legal trouble Jan. 30.
Garrett Reid tested positive for heroin and admitted having used it that day. He ran a red light in Plymouth Township and hit another car. Authorities found syringes with heroin and testosterone in his SUV.

In a separate incident that same day, Britt Reid pointed a handgun at another driver following a dispute. He pleaded guilty to a string of charges, including carrying a firearm without a license, a felony.

Britt Reid was sentenced to eight to 23 months in jail plus four years' probation on gun and drug charges. He can apply for the special drug program after five months.
Garrett Reid was sentenced to two to 23 months in the county prison plus one year of probation. He told O'Neill he would apply to the drug court program.

"I don't want to be that kid who was the son of the head coach of the Eagles, who was spoiled and on drugs and OD'd and just faded into oblivion," he said in court.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo said authorities were satisfied with the sentence.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT