Schlitterbahn’s attorneys want charges in boy’s death dismissed

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The case against defendants charged after a 10-year-old boy was decapitated at a Kansas water park should be dismissed because the Kansas attorney general’s office abused the grand jury system and presented flimsy evidence to obtain criminal indictments, defense attorneys argued Friday.

During a hearing in Wyandotte County court, attorneys for Jeff Henry, Tyler Miles, John Schooley and Schlitterbahn corporate entities said grand jurors heard improper evidence that unfairly prejudiced jurors against their clients, The Kansas City Star reported.

The grand jury found that the defendants were responsible for the death of Caleb Schwab at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, in August of 2016. The boy was killed when his raft went airborne and hit a metal pole on the Verruckt water slide, which was billed as the largest in the world when it opened.

Defense attorneys argued Friday that the grand jury should not have been shown clips from a Travel Channel television show that chronicled the construction of the 17-story water slide, which was scripted and filmed for dramatic effect.

“They decide, strategically, to play to the grand jurors fictionalized, dramatized television as truth for grand jurors to rely upon to make the determination to provide an (indictment),” said Jeff Morris, an attorney representing Schlitterbahn general contracting affiliate Henry & Sons Construction.