Garrett Reid, the oldest son of Eagles head coach Andy Reid, is expected to surrender to police in Montgomery County this morning on misdemeanor charges stemming from a car crash last month and alleged drug offenses.
The Plymouth Township Police Department filed the charges against the 23-year-old yesterday. They include simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, driving under the influence and drug-related offenses.
Unlike his younger brother Britt Reid's appearance in Montgomery County District Court on unrelated charges earlier this month, Garrett will not be handcuffed when he enters the police station for a scheduled 8:30 a.m. preliminary arraignment, said Kevin Harley, spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
Garrett is expected to be fingerprinted and photographed. Charges will be read by Blue Bell Magisterial District Judge John Murray, who will appear by video conference and who will set bail.
Harley said that, like his brother Britt, Garrett is expected to post bail and return to his parents' Villanova-area home.
The brothers' troubles exploded hours apart on the same day.
About 9 a.m. on Jan. 30, Britt Reid, 21, allegedly displayed a gun at another motorist during a road-rage incident on Front Street near Matsonford Road in West Conshohocken.
He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Montgomery County District Court today, but has waived his right to that hearing, the state attorney general's office announced yesterday.
Defendants typically waive preliminary hearings when there is enough evidence against them to proceed to trial.
William J. Winning, the Cozen O'Connor attorney representing both brothers, did not return calls from the Daily News to his Center City office at the end of business yesterday.
Britt's case will next head to formal arraignment, then trial in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court in Norristown.
State Attorney General Tom Corbett's office is prosecuting both Reid cases because Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr., who is running for county commissioner, recused his office from the cases to avoid a potential conflict of interest. His campaign treasurer, Ross Weiss, works at Cozen O'Connor.
About 2:25 p.m. Jan. 30, Garrett allegedly rammed his black 2004 Jeep Liberty into the side of a Ford Taurus driven by Louise Hartman, at Germantown Pike and Arch Road, in Plymouth Township, knocking Hartman, 55, unconscious. Hartman, who lives in Mount Carmel and in Philadelphia, was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for head and cervical injuries, and was released.
According to a police complaint, witnesses in vehicles stopped at a red light on eastbound Germantown Pike at Arch said that they had seen a black SUV, later identified to be Garrett's, swerving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed, then zooming through the red light going east on the pike.
The SUV hit Hartman's Taurus, which was northbound on Arch and had the green light, witnesses said.
Garrett was determined to have been traveling at 67 mph in a 35-mph zone, the police criminal complaint said.
Responding to the accident scene, Plymouth Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Moretti searched Garrett and found on him a knife and drug paraphernalia, including hypodermic syringes, cotton balls and a spoon.
Garrett told police that he had used heroin that day and that he had no idea what color the traffic light had been on Germantown Pike.
Toxicology tests on Garrett's blood were positive for morphine, commonly found as the result of heroin use, and amphetamine, a stimulant, the police complaint said.
Moretti also found inside Garrett's SUV a triple-beam scale commonly used in drug trafficking, an ammunition container, and, sticking out from under the driver's seat, a pellet gun, which is legal.
Garrett was charged with nine misdemeanors. He was also charged with five summary offenses related to reckless driving.
Besides the misdemanor charges of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and driving under the influence, he faces four counts of possessing a controlled substance - one each for heroin, amphetamine, phentermine (used for weight loss) and testosterone, an anabolic steroid. He was also charged with two counts of using or possessing drug paraphernalia.
Earlier this month, Britt Reid was charged with a gun felony and six misdemeanors, including simple assault and drug possession, in the road-rage incident.
Authorities say Britt pointed a silver pistol at another motorist, Larry Johnson, 36, a carpenter from Delaware County, before driving away.
During a search of the 2004 black GMC Denali driven by Britt, police found a magazine clip loaded with a dozen .45-caliber bullets behind the driver's seat. The clip fit Britt's gun, a Para Tac-Four .45-caliber pistol, authorities said.
Also found were small amounts of cocaine, marijuana and Oxycodone, a prescription painkiller. *