O.C. mother held after child drowns

An Anaheim mother remained in custody Friday on suspicion of felony child endangerment after her 13-month-old son drowned in their unfenced backyard pool. Police said they also are reexamining a case in 2005 when another of the woman’s young sons died.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Tim Schmidt said the boy’s 12-year-old sister placed the 911 call about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, saying that her brother was in the family’s backyard pool.

When police arrived at the residence on Melanie Drive, the children’s mother, Paige Looney, had pulled her son out of the water and was giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Schmidt said.

The boy, Eric, was rushed to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center Orange County, where he died half an hour later.

Looney, 34, showed signs of intoxication when police arrived, Schmidt said. Police found empty beer cans strewed about the house and backyard, as well as other items that “did not appear to be normal,” Schmidt said.

“This is not an accident. There is criminal culpability here,” he said. “Her negligence played a huge part in this.”

Schmidt said it was unclear how the boy had gotten into the pool, which did not have a fence or barricade surrounding it -- and that, in turn, could be a violation of state law.

New pools are required to be fenced; police are checking whether the Looney pool was “grandfathered” in before the law went into effect.

Detectives returned to the house late Thursday with a search warrant. Schmidt declined to comment on what was found.

The boy’s father, who lives at the residence part time, was not home when the drowning occurred, police said.

Family members Friday expressed concerns about Paige Looney’s treatment of her children and said they had repeatedly made complaints to Orange County Child Protective Services.

Schmidt confirmed that complaints had been filed against her with CPS. The agency, citing privacy concerns, does not release information on abuse reports.

Police and the Orange County coroner will review the cause of death of her son Kyle, who died in 2005 at age 2. The cause of death was listed as undetermined, Schmidt said, but was linked to a preexisting heart condition.

“We are reviewing it to check for similarities in this case to see if we can find anything to help with the current case,” Schmidt said.

Looney’s 12-year-old and 4-year-old were taken into protective custody.

Her ex-husband Mark Looney, father of the 12-year-old, said Friday that he was trying to get custody of his child. He declined to comment further.

Mark Looney is the brother of Steve Looney, who is now married to Paige Looney and is the father of the two deceased sons and the 4-year-old.

my-thuan.tran@latimes.com