A shocking audiotape featuring Kansas City football player Tyreek Hill and his fiancée Crystal Espinal surfaced Wednesday and the contents were enough for the Johnson County, Kansas district attorney’s office to reopen the criminal child abuse case against the two. The couple lost custody of their son on April 5, and he was put into protective custody.
In the recording, which was believed to be made in March at the Dubai airport, the couple discuss their son’s broken arm. Espinal tries to intimate that Hill broke the child’s arm, and says he is terrified of the wide receiver. Hill says: “You need to be terrified of me, too, bitch.â€
The police were called out twice to the couple’s house, and the second time was when the injury to the child allegedly happened. The initial investigation by prosecutor Steve Howe said a crime had been committed, but he didn’t know by whom.
While Hill has a no-contact order with his son, Espinal has supervised visits. Hill did release a statement on Wednesday.
“I love and support my family above anything. My son’s health and happiness is my number one priority. I want to thank the Kansas City Chiefs, my attorneys, my agent and my union for supporting me through this. My focus remains on working hard to be the best person for my family and our community I can be, and the best player to help our team win,” Hill said.
Chiefs Take Action
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach told reporters the same day the tape surfaced that they were looking into the allegations.
“We were made aware of this information in real time, just like the general public,” he said. “We were deeply disturbed by what we heard and deeply concerned. Now, obviously, we have great concern for Crystal, we are greatly concerned for Tyreek, but our main focus, main concern, is with the young child.”
Kansas City owner Clark Hunt said on Saturday at the team’s annual draft party that he was “deeply disturbed” at the audiotape. He also added the Chiefs had suspended Hill from all team-related activities.
“I’d just point out that Tyreek is not with the franchise right now and we’re going to go through the process,” Hunt said. “We’ll make the right decision about Tyreek at the right time.”
The team might not wait for the D.A.’s investigation to conclude. The team might take action this week, and either suspend Hill or cut him.
Second Incident at Kansas City
That is what the Chiefs did with running back Kareem Hunt. A videotape surfaced in December showing Hunt pushing, shoving, and then kicking a woman in a hotel hallway.
The NFL put the running back on the Commissioner Exempt List, which meant he was not permitted to play on the field for any team until their investigation is complete.
Kansas City waived Hunt shortly after the video surfaced, but the 23-year-old was picked up by the Cleveland Browns in February. A month later, the NFL then suspended Hunt for the first eight games of the 2019 season.
