Report: Tyreek Hill Will Not Face Criminal Charges in Child Abuse Investigation
Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill will not face criminal charges in a child abuse investigation involving his three-year-old son, KCTV5 and The Kansas City Star reported on Friday.
According to the outlets, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said prosecutors are no longer actively working the criminal case.
"It is not an active investigation,” Howe said in an email Friday morning, according to The Star. “As in any case, if we receive additional evidence we reevaluate.”
On April 24, Howe said that he believed the son of Hill and fiancée Crystal Espinal had been hurt but could not prove who did it. Two days later, an audio recording was released in which Hill is heard discussing his three-year-old son's broken arm and how he and Espinal should deal with an investigation into how it happened.
In the 11-minute clip, Espinal is heard asking the two-time All-Pro why their son said, "Daddy did it," in reference to his injured arm. Hill is heard at one point telling Espinal, "You need to be terrified of me, too, b----." The couple lost temporary custody of their son on April 18.
After the audio clip's release, the Chiefs suspended Hill and said he "will not be partaking in any team activities." Head coach Andy Reid said the criminal case had been reopened, though Howe declined to comment when asked by The Star if it had been. Hill's attorney, Trey Pettlon, told The Star that the case had been in fact been closed for "quite some time now."
Pettlon previously "categorically denied" the child abuse allegations made against the Chiefs wide receiver. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in May that the league was waiting for permission to interview Hill for its own investigation.
Hill and Espinal still have an ongoing case with the Kansas Department for Children and Families, according to KCTV5.
The ongoing case isn't the first incident involving Hill and Espinal. In 2015, Hill pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges for punching and choking Espinal while she was pregnant. He was sentenced to three years probation but eventually selected by Kansas City in the fifth round in the 2016 NFL draft.
Last season, the Chiefs released running back Kareem Hunt in November after a video was released showing him pushing and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel in February 2018. The Browns signed Hunt this past February even though he was on the Commissioner's Exempt List. In March he was suspended eight games for violating the league's personal conduct policy.
