Parents of Boy Paralyzed in Care Center Pool Accident Sue : Litigation: The county is a party to the suit on the ground that it should have closed or taken some other action against the unlicensed facility.

The parents of a 2-year-old boy left paralyzed and brain-damaged after tumbling into a swimming pool at an unlicensed North Tustin day-care center sued the center’s owners, the county and the state Thursday, contending that stricter regulation of the facility could have prevented the accident.

Christy Kolbet, 40, and Derek Weston, 29, of Santa Ana seek unspecified damages for the March 30 accident at the Cowan Heights home of Diane and Orvel Brooks. The lawsuit also names the Brooks’ daughter, Carol, who was in charge of the children when the accident happened.

“This was a terrible catastrophe which we believe could have been prevented had county and state authorities intervened in a timely and appropriate manner,” said Gloria Allred, the lawyer who filed the Superior Court lawsuit.

Jonathan Derek Weston, who will be 3 in May, and two other children fell into the Brooks’ pool when Carol Brooks allegedly left them unattended for a short period of time.

A 14-month-old boy, Arthur M. Griese, died about 24 hours after Orvel Brooks pulled him from the water. Jonathan was brain-damaged and paralyzed. Another 2-year-old, Melissa Dianne Polsfoot, also suffered permanent brain damage.

Diane and Carol Brooks were charged with willful failure to obtain a day-care license, a misdemeanor. They face a January trial in Municipal Court in Santa Ana. Deputy Public Defender Deborah Barnum said the women had done everything that they were instructed to do by county day-care regulators to ensure the safety of their charges.

Derek Weston said he has to fight tears when he thinks of the “gorgeous, bright, active” little boy Jonathan used to be. The bouncy child who used to help his father rake leaves in the yard now requires round-the-clock medical care. His lungs must be suctioned hourly and medications administered through a gastrointestinal tube, Weston said.

Weston and Kolbet care for Jonathan in the evenings, then a hired nurse arrives at their home to supervise him while his parents sleep. When they leave for work in the morning, they drop him off at a specialized care center in Santa Ana, Kolbet said.

“If we had just known the place was unsafe, this never would have happened because we would have taken Jonathan out of there,” Kolbet said. “This has completely destroyed our lives. We’ve suffered emotionally, financially. Our relationship and our jobs suffer. No one can ever fix what’s happened to us.”

Kolbet and Weston said in the lawsuit that the Orange County Department of Social Services should have made sure that the day-care center was shut down. Prompted by calls from a concerned neighbor, the agency twice visited the Brooks home and ordered the family to halt its child-care operations. But Weston and Kolbet blame the agency for failing to take stronger measures such as obtaining a court order or levying fines.

“We believe the county should have done more than simply fill out a form and have the Brooks sign the cease-and-desist order,” Allred said.

At the very least, the agency should have warned parents that the facility was unsafe, Allred said. But because that was not done, “every parent’s worst nightmare became a reality for Jonathan and his parents,” she added.

State and county social services officials were unavailable for comment.