Supporters aid Irving mother charged in her 3 children’s drownings

A family that said they left Chicago for Texas to seek a better life watched that dream dissolve this summer with the drowning deaths of three of their children.

Their mother, Patricia Denise Allen, was later arrested and charged with injury to a child in the deaths of Anthony Smith, 11, August Smith, 10, and Trishawn Smith, 9. The charge is a second-degree felony, punishable by two to 20 years in prison.

Allen’s booking mug, her face wet with tears, shows her pain.

More heartache followed as the two other children, ages 6 and 3, of Allen and J. Pinkney were removed by Child Protective Services and remain in the custody of the state.

Allen, 30, was released from the Irving Jail after posting bond, and community supporters helped the family raise the money to pay for the children’s funerals.

Supporters are continuing their efforts to raise $20,000 to pay for a defense attorney, said Anthony Bond, an Irving-based community activist.

“I’ve got people all over the world who are praying that the grand jury will no-bill this woman,” Bond said. “This woman is a grieving mother out of her mind because she has lost her three children.”

Allen was with her five children at an apartment complex pool in the 2400 block of North MacArthur Boulevard on June 24 when the three children began struggling in the water.

As emergency workers were dispatched to the complex, a maintenance man and others tried to resuscitate two children. A firefighter pulled the third child out of the pool’s murky water, police have said.

August Smith was pronounced dead that day. Her brothers Trishawn Smith and Anthony Smith died June 28 in a Dallas children’s hospital.

Disputing the claims

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, witnesses said that Allen was texting on her cellphone while attending to her 3-year-old, that neither Allen nor any of the children could swim, that none of the kids was wearing flotation devices and that the pool water was murky.

Allen’s attorney, Linda Turley, disputed at least two of the claims in the affidavit, saying that Allen and the three children knew how to swim and that Allen wasn’t on her phone when the children were in the pool. Turley has advised Allen not to speak about the drownings until her case is resolved.

“Unfortunately drowning can occur in as little as 20 to 60 seconds,” Turley said in an emailed statement. “We believe that when one child had problems and the other two went to help, all three drowned. Ms. Allen searched for her children, but could not see them because of the murky water. She yelled for help. When bystanders helped pull the children from the water she began CPR.”

Irving police stand by their affidavit, said Detective Stephen Lee, a police spokesman. Investigators interviewed witnesses and then took their statements to a judge, who signed the warrant for Allen’s arrest, Lee said.

“This will go before a grand jury, which could happen in about a month,” Lee said.

Turley said the pool should not have been open. Management at the MacArthur Place at 183 apartments did not respond to a request for comments.

“Opening this pool violated Texas law,” Turley said. “Texas requires that apartment pools, like this one, remain closed when the bottom of the pool is not visible. This pool should not have been open that day. Had the property owners or management followed the law and closed the pool this never would have happened.”

Texas Department of State Health Services standards for swimming pools and spas say that pools “shall be opened for use only if the pool or spa bottom and/or main drains are clearly visible.”

City inspection records for the last five years show that both pools at MacArthur Place at 183 received repeated notice that drains were not visible, life poles needed to be replaced and gates did not latch, according to an Associated Press report.

‘This was not neglect’

Allen’s husband, J. Pinkney, said he also disputes the witness accounts gathered by police officers. Pinkney said he left work after Allen called him from the apartment office saying that the children had been injured in the pool.

While the parents were at the hospital, Child Protective Services workers tried to interview their 6-year-old daughter as the family prayed for their two sons to recover from their injuries, Pinkney said.

Allen donated Trishawn’s heart so it might help someone’s child, Pinkney said.

Pinkney said the family left Chicago in October 2013 and moved to Texas to get away from the crime and violence that continues to plague that city’s south and west sides. Over the Fourth of July weekend, shootings in Chicago left 10 people dead and at least 53 injured, according to media reports.

Pinkney said they wanted to live in a community with strong schools and one where their children could go to the park without being harassed.

“How can you come into my house and take my children and arrest my wife based on what somebody else says?” Pinkney asked. “This was an accident. This was not neglect. I don’t know why they are trying to railroad her.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Supporters aid Irving mother charged in her 3 children’s drownings."