Photo: David Strickland via AP
The death of a 10-year-old Kansas boy who wasdecapitated in a 2016 water slide accidentled to criminal charges of recklessness andsecond-degree murderagainst the owner, designers and builder of the slide, which was billed at the time as the world’s tallest.
On Friday, a state court judge threw out those charges. But the Kansas attorney general said in a statement that he may still considerfuture criminal charges.
The dismissed charges were based upon improper “illegal” evidence presented to a grand jury, ruled Judge Robert Burns of Wyandotte County, according toKMBC.
The boy, Caleb Schwab, was with his family at the Schlitterbahn waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, on Aug. 7, 2016, when the raft he was riding on the 17-story Verrückt waterslide went airborne at the crest of the drop.
Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via AP
He rode the newly opened ride that day during an event at the waterpark for the families of elected officials, which included his father, former Kansas lawmaker Scott Schwab, who is now the Kansas secretary of state.
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After the tragedy, prosecutors led a Wyandotte County grand jury to approve charges of second-degree murder. Among those indicted were Jeffrey Wayne Henry, a co-owner of Schlitterbahn Companies and a designer of the waterslide; John Timothy Schooley, also a designer of the slide; and Henry & Sons Construction Company, Inc., the corporation involved in building the slide.
Additional charges against the defendants included reckless behavior in the design, construction and operation of the ride, along with aggravated child endangerment.
“The video, though, is a fictional and dramatized version of events created for entertainment purposes,” wrote Burns, who ruled that the video should not have been presented as evidence, according toThe New York Times.
The judge also sided with defense attorneys who complained that grand jurors were presented additional evidence that related to a death from a different Schlitterbahn waterpark, reports KMBC.
“We are obviously disappointed and respectfully disagree with the court’s decision,“Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidtsaid in a statement. “We will review the ruling carefully, including the court’s observation that the ruling ‘does not preclude the possibility that the State could continue to pursue this matter in a criminal court,’ and take a fresh look at the evidence and applicable law in this tragic and troubling case to determine the best course forward.”
A company spokeswoman said in a statement that Schlitterbahn’s owners embraced the judge’s decision, according to theTimes.
An attorney for ride designer Schooley, Justin Johnston, told theTimes: “We don’t know what the future holds, but hope that with a fresh look at the evidence and law, the parties can find a way to put this matter behind them.”
Last year Caleb’s family was awarded nearly $20 million in settlement payments from two companies associated with Texas-based Schlitterbahn, along with the ride’s general contractor, the raft manufacturer and a consultant on the slide, reportsThe Kansas City Star.
Caleb’s parents, Scott and Michelle Schwab, said in a2017 interviewonGood Morning Americathat they had taken their four sons to the water park, and that Caleb and his then 12-year-old brother, Nathan, both went to the top of the 170-foot slide.
“Before they took off I said, ‘Brothers stick together’ and [Caleb] said, ‘I know, dad,'” Scott said.
Nathan went down the slide first and waited for Caleb at the bottom. “[Nathan] was screaming, ‘He flew from Verrückt, he flew Verrückt,'” Caleb’s mother said.
Caleb was found dead in a pool at the bottom of the slide. Police confirmed to PEOPLE that he had been decapitated.
“It’s an accident, but there is an accounting because someone was negligent,” Caleb’s father said onGMA.
Removal of the slide had been delayed pending the investigation and trial on the criminal charges, but last year a court gaveapproval for it to be demolished.
source: people.com
