Pool Company President Charged in Boy's Drowning

July 21, 2008— -- A swimming pool company president was charged Monday with second-degree manslaughter in connection with an incident last year in which a 6-year-old boy drowned in Greenwich after his arm was trapped in a powerful suction drain.

Greenwich Police said Shoreline Pools President David Lionetti "recklessly caused the death" of Zachary Cohn by failing to have his company install mandated safety devices in the pool the company built for the boy's family. Police alleged the safety devices would have prevented the boy's death.

Lionetti, 53, of Stamford, was released after posting $25,000 bond. If convicted of the felony, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

"To my knowledge this is the first time an executive from a pool company has been prosecuted for homicide for claimed code violations in the installation of a pool," said Richard Meehan Jr., Lionetti's attorney. "He intends to plead not guilty and we look forward to aggressively defending the case."

Meehan declined to comment on the issue of safety devices, saying he had not seen the arrest affidavit yet.

The arrest comes three days after a fire destroyed the company's Stamford warehouse, causing 13 police officers to be treated for chemical exposure. The cause of the fire was unknown Monday.

Police say 6-year-old Zachary Cohn drowned after his arm became stuck in an intake valve in the deep end of an in-ground pool on July 26, 2007. Water entering an intake valve is pumped through the filtering system under suction before being pumped back into the pool.

The boy's parents filed a lawsuit in January alleging the pool violated safety code requirements designed in response to a rash of similar tragedies around the country.

The lawsuit was filed in Stamford Superior Court by Brian Cohn, former president of one of the world's largest hedge funds, SAC Capital Advisors, and his wife, Karen, against the town of Greenwich, Shoreline Pools and others.

The boy's father and another adult jumped into the pool to try to free him but the pool's suction was too powerful, according to the lawsuit.

The boy's parents could not find a mechanism to turn off the suction pump, so Karen Cohn ran and shut off power to the house, including the pool's drain pump. Brian Cohn was then able to free his son and perform CPR, but it was too late.

Since 1985, there have been more than 150 reported cases of swimming pool drain entrapments, leading to at least 48 deaths and many serious injuries, including disembowelment, of children and adults, according to the lawsuit.

The family has established the Zac Foundation for Children's Safety. Any proceeds from the lawsuit will go to the foundation, said Paul Slager and Ernie Teitell, the family's attorneys.

The lawsuit contends the swimming pool "fell well short" of minimum state safety standards, containing seven serious code violations that each had the potential to cause fatal entrapment.

The pool's waterfall drain and main drain each lacked a second suction drain outlet; the spa's two drains were not located the minimum distance apart; and the pool's pumps lacked a safety vacuum release system that shuts down a pump when suction is blocked or a system that allows the pool to drain without active pump suction, according to the lawsuit.

The shut-off switch for the drain pump was placed in a remote enclosure without clear identifying signs, making it practically inaccessible in an emergency, the lawsuit states. Shoreline failed to repair a drain cover or warn the family they should not swim in the pool until it was fixed, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit, which seeks damages of more than $15,000, alleges Shoreline had a history of violating building code requirements and accuses the town of failing to conduct a proper inspection before issuing a permit.