Child abuse case against Chiefs' Tyreek Hill isn't active, DA says
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After weeks of speculation regarding the legal status of Kansas City Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill, it appears the criminal case involving Hill has not been reopened.
“It is not an active investigation,” Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe wrote in an email to The Kansas City Star on Friday morning. “As in any case, if we receive additional evidence we reevaluate.”
Hill is still suspended from all team activities and isn’t expected to be at next week’s mandatory minicamp.
Doubt it. At the moment, I personally do not expect him at minicamp as this situation will probably get sorted out this summer. But a return for training camp could be an option. https://t.co/orEg3z513d
— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) June 7, 2019
One day after Howe announced in a news conference on April 24 that neither Hill nor his fiancee, Crystal Espinal, would be charged with hurting their 3-year-old son, a news station in Kansas City released audio of Hill and Espinal arguing about who hurt the boy. Shortly after that, the Chiefs suspended Hill from all team activities and a news station reported that the case into Hill had been reopened, a line Chiefs coach Andy Reid repeated later in a news conference.
A source told Yahoo Sports in early May that many familiar with the case were of the belief that it had not been, though it was known that the district attorney could choose to reopen it at his discretion.
“My impression is that the DA’s office has reviewed all the evidence very carefully and that the investigation has been closed for some time now,” N. Trey Pettlon, Hill’s attorney, told Yahoo Sports on Friday.
A month ago, his lawyer sent the league a four-page rebuttal against the abuse charges. The NFL has yet to rule in the case regarding potential discipline, but has proven in past cases that a player doesn’t need criminal charges brought against him to invoke discipline.
The NFL has not ruled on the case as commissioner Roger Goodell essentially said the league would not “interfere” with that until the child protective services investigation involving the family has concluded, a process that could take months.
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