Couple Whose Baby Drowned Are Freed Pending Court Date

A couple charged with child endangerment in the drowning of their year-old son was released from custody Wednesday on condition that they take safety measures at the unfenced backyard pool where the baby died.

Soloi Tavita, 28, and Talaave Taafua, 25, were ordered back to court Sept. 4 to enter their pleas to the felony charges and to show proof they have drained or fenced the family pool or filled it with sand.

“We don’t want a repetition of this whole incident,” Municipal Judge James M. Brooks said as he ordered the parents’ release without bail.

Relatives, including the child’s grandparents who live with the family, declined to comment Wednesday.

The father’s attorney said family members, struggling to cope with a death they believe was an accident, feel the arrest added “insult to injury.”

“It’s a tragedy any way you look at it,” defense attorney Peter Macdonald said.

In taking the unusual step of filing charges in the drowning, prosecutors alleged that the parents negligently placed the child in a dangerous circumstance likely to produce injury or death.

The baby, Darice Alovao Taafua, died Aug. 4, one day after his mother awoke from a nap to find him at the bottom of the pool, police said. The toddler’s father also was asleep in the house in the 2200 block of North Lair Street, police said.

The pool had no fence, and police at the time said the baby had wandered past an unlocked sliding glass door in his mother’s bedroom. On Tuesday, police said it was unclear how the child got into the backyard.

If convicted, the parents would face sentences ranging from probation to six years in prison.

Santa Ana Police Sgt. Bob Clark said investigators review all cases to determine whether criminal negligence may have contributed to drownings. But this case is the first he knows of in which the district attorney’s office has filed charges.

Police reports indicate that on the night before the drowning, the children--including the victim, his twin and a 2-year-old sibling--had stayed up until 4:30 a.m. with their mother watching television, Clark said.

“Mom got up at 8:30 a.m. or 9 a.m., had a headache and took some Excedrin and went back to sleep,” Clark said. “Somewhere during that time period, between 9 and 10, that little 1-year-old was able to get out from that sliding screen.”

The unfenced pool is four feet from the sliding glass door, he said.

Clark called the case a “double tragedy” resulting not only in the death of a toddler but in the filing of felony charges. The approach, however, will send a message to Orange County parents, he said.

“It’s just incredible to me that there have been 34 drownings and near-drownings [this year] and to my knowledge, nothing has ever been filed,” he said.

“The bottom line is that the reason that these drownings occur for the most part is that somebody is not watching these kids or taking the necessary precautions to make sure that these pools are kid-proof.”