Reid: Criminal case against Chiefs’ Hill reopened
The Johnson County District Attorney’s office has reopened its criminal case into Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, coach Andy Reid said at a news conference on Friday.
The decision to reopen the investigation into Hill and his fiancée, Crystal Espinal, follows an audio recording released on Thursday by KCTV in Kansas City in which Espinal accused Hill of abusing their 3-year-old son.
On Wednesday, Johnson County District Attorney Stephen M. Howe had said charges would not be filed after police were called to Hill’s home twice last month and investigators determined the child had been injured. Howe said he believed a crime had occurred but that the evidence didn’t clearly establish who committed it.
After the release of the audio on Thursday, the Chiefs announced that Hill had been barred indefinitely from all team activities.
“We were deeply disturbed by what we heard [on the recorded conversation],” general manager Brett Veach said Thursday. “We were deeply concerned. Now, obviously, we have great concern for Crystal. We are greatly concerned for Tyreek. But our main focus, our main concern, is with the young child.”
In the 11-minute audio file, Espinal tells Hill that when asked about an injury to the child’s arm, the boy replied: “Daddy did it.”
Hill denied any role in what happened to the child’s arm, adding: “He says Daddy does a lot of things.”
Espinal then says, “A 3-year-old is not going to lie about what happened to his arm.”
“Daddy did it,” Espinal says, paraphrasing the boy. “He is terrified of you.”
Hill responds, according to the recording: “You need to be terrified of me, too, b—-.”
Later in the recording, Espinal says, “He kept saying ‘Daddy punches me,’ which you do when he starts crying. What do you do? You make him open up his arms, and you punch him in the chest. Then if he gets in trouble, you get the belt out.”
At another point in the recording, Espinal brings up the investigations by the Overland Park (Kansas) Police Department and the Kansas Department for Children and Families.
“Now, somehow this investigation got brought back up, and you’re about to lose your [deleted],” she says.
“Now, I really want you [to] sit and think about it because I rode for you against that detective and the [DCF] people.”
Espinal then talks about what Hill does when their son starts crying.
The conversation was recorded as the couple walked through Dubai International Airport, according to KCTV. No date for the conversation was given.
ESPN was unable to independently confirm Thursday that it was Hill and Espinal on the recording.
Police were called to Hill’s Kansas City home after the release of the audio. According to reports, Espinal was fine and officers were at the home for only a short time.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told ESPN’s Sam Ponder on Thursday that the league was still investigating.
“When you get the facts, then you make a decision about how it fits into our personal conduct policy,” Goodell said. “You don’t make a decision without having those facts.”
ESPN’s Adam Teicher and The Associated Press contributed to this report