Judge sentences Reid's son, rips home as 'drug emporium'
"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," the 24-year-old said in court.
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.
Speaking in court and in a statement to a probation officer, Garrett Reid said he made a fast descent into hard drugs and enjoyed being the rich kid who dealt drugs in poor, violent Philadelphia neighborhoods and in the tony suburbs.
His addiction persists, according to authorities, who found 89 prescription drug pills in Reid's jail cell Thursday morning. They believe he smuggled them in his rectum when he was jailed earlier this week.
"That's consistent with someone as severely drug addicted as he is," said the prosecutor, Senior Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo.
Garrett Reid's descent in drug use and dealing was steep, according to a probation report read in court. Reid said he didn't use drugs until he graduated from high school, then started with marijuana and alcohol at age 18. That was followed by prescription pain killers Percocet and OxyContin, and then cocaine and heroin.
By 20, he was in drug rehab.
Reid said he sold drugs to his friends and their parents in the suburbs and in a notoriously tough section of Philadelphia.
"I liked being the rich kid in that area and having my own high status life," Reid told a probation officer in a statement read by the judge. "I could go anywhere in the 'hood. They all knew who I was. I enjoyed it. I liked being a drug dealer."
He said in court Thursday that he has stopped selling drugs.
"I did get a thrill out of it," he said. "That was also part of the whole new world that opened up to me when I smoked that first joint."
Costanzo said authorities were satisfied with the sentence, noting "the drug court is the best part."
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