Are Parents Often Charged When Children Drown?

On May 18, Trigg Kiser, the three-year-old son of mega popular mom influencer Emilie Kiser died following a drowning incident at the family’s Chandler, Arizona home. Nearly two months after the toddler’s death, the Chandler Police are recommending a class 4 felony charge of child abuse against the boy’s father, Brady Kiser, though experts tell Rolling Stone that child abuse charges are rare in drowning cases.

Emilie Kiser is a popular mom influencer with over 4 million followers on TikTok, and Trigg was often featured in her content. Following his death, some fans had an intense parasocial reaction, to the extent that some other mom influencers even reconsidered sharing their children online at all. At the time of the incident, according to reporting by People, Emilie was not home and Brady was taking care of both Trigg and the couple’s infant son, Theodore. According to search warrant applications obtained by The Arizona Republic, Brady told police he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes while “distracted” by his infant son. When Brady saw Trigg in the pool, he jumped in to get him and called 911, the father told police. Investigators obtained video surveillance from cameras in the backyard to confirm Brady’s statement. Though the details of the investigation have not been made public, the Chandler Police Department has concluded its investigation “following a thorough review of the evidence” and recommended the felony child abuse charge.

Under Arizona law, felony child abuse occurs when a person who has the care or custody of a child or vulnerable adult causes them to suffer a physical injury or permits them to be placed in a situation where they are endangered. A felony child abuse offense is considered a class 4 charge “if done with criminal negligency.” Frank Vandervort, a clinical professor of law who works with the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan, says it’s rare for parents to be charged with child abuse in connection with a drowning incident. “Most child drownings result in child neglect or endangerment charges rather than abuse [charges],” Vandervort says. “This is unusual.” Child abuse charges generally suggest an active involvement in the child’s death, Vandervort says, rather than a failure to act. The Arizona Republic reports that police were considering child abuse charges against Brady for an incident that occurred before Trigg’s death. Representatives for Emilie Kiser did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.

The case has been submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review; prosecutors will decide to either formally charge Brady Kiser, drop the case, or send it back to police for further investigation. Neither Emilie nor Brady Kiser has spoken publicly since the death of their son, though Emilie sued to keep the records of the drowning private, according to a filing in the Superior Court of Arizona. In June, a non-dissemination order was instituted in the case, temporarily halting the release of records, which includes 911 calls, the autopsy report, photos of the scene, the police report, and security camera footage.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning deaths are on the rise in the United States and is the number one cause of death for children between one and four years old in the United States. “Parents are not regularly charged when their children drown,” says Richard Wexler, the executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. Wexler notes that charges are more likely to be brought when the child is poor and nonwhite. “As with every other decision involving child protective services, the decision-making is arbitrary, capricious, and subject to the whims and prejudices of the decision makers,” Wexler says. “There can be good, sound reasons to bring charges but we’re going to need to know a lot more before we find out if this case is one of them.”

Vivek Sankaran, the director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan, sees the recommendation of charges against Brady Kiser as part of a pattern. “This is a sign of the world we’re in right now, where people are so quick to blame and to judge parents,” he says. “Any time a mistake happens, we want to blame as opposed to support and nurture in some way. Any of us who are parents can understand — but for the grace of God, that could be any of us in that situation. It just doesn’t seem like a proper use of the criminal justice system.”