Influencer Dad was Betting on Basketball Before Son Drowned in Pool: Police Report

Newly released police records are. raising fresh questions about the. drowning death of three-year-old Trig. Kaiser, including what his father, Brady. Kaiser, was doing or may be doing in the. crucial moments before this ultimate. tragedy. And investigators, they pointed. to what they say are conflicting. statements, discrepancies in. surveillance footage, and pool safety. lapses in recommending criminal charges, but prosecutors disagreed, ultimately. declined to file them. We are going to. be speaking with an Arizona criminal. defense attorney to break it all down, but also we are going through the.

details in this new reporting to. understand what may have happened. Welcome to Sidebar presented by Law and. Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Okay, we have this newly released. information and it is shedding further. light on just the absolute tragic. drowning of influencer Emily Kaiser's. three-year-old son, Tri Trig Kaiser. And. this includes crucial details about what. her husband, Brady Kaiser, was allegedly. doing at the time of the incident. Now,

before we dive into the new findings, I. got to give you a brief recap for anyone. who's not fully caught up or briefed. about this. So, we go back to May 12th. 3-year-old Trig Kaiser was found. unresponsive in the backyard pool of his. family's Chandler, Arizona home. According to his father, Brady, he had. been caring for both Trigg and the. couple's newborn son while Emily was out. with friends. Now, Brady told police he. was briefly distracted while feeding the. baby, just 3 to 5 minutes, he claimed, and during which time Trigg, who had.

been playing near the pool, went. missing. Brady said he found Trigg. floating in the pool unresponsive and. immediately jumped in to pull him out. before calling 911. Trigg was. hospitalized and ultimately died 6 days. later. It's horrible. After a two-month. investigation, Chandler Police. Department announced on July 15th, that. they were recommending criminal charges. against the father here, Brady Kaiser, specifically one count of child abuse, a. class 4 felony under Arizona law. And.

the statute referenced ARS 13-3623, and applies when someone acts with. criminal negligence that leads to a. child being harmed or placed in danger. of serious injury or death. However, when the case was forwarded to the. Maricopa County Attorney's Office, prosecutors ultimately decided not to. pursue charges, citing insufficient. evidence to secure a conviction. Now, during the investigation, Emily Kaiser. filed legal motions to protect her. family's privacy, including efforts to.

redact portions of the police report. before its public release. Now, a court. ultimately ruled in her favor, allowing. the removal of two pages from the. report. We covered the full legal battle. in a previous sidebar episode. You can. definitely go check it out right now for. more context. But now with the release. of a 55page police report on August 8th, we are learning new potentially critical. details that may raise serious questions. and we obtained and read through the. entire police report and we're going to. give you and break down the most.

significant revelations according to. authorities. So, according to one of the. first officers on scene, officer Tyler. Shank, Brady Kaiser told him he had last. seen Shrigg approximately 5 minutes. before the child was found in the pool. Police, they were dispatched to the. Kaiser residence at around 6:40 p.m. on. May 12th, 2025. And per the police. report, it reads, "The male on scene, this is Brady Kaiser, who led officers. inside was extremely distraught. The. male subject would go and pick up an. infant baby while I continued to give.

compressions to the unconscious. toddler." Officers attempted to garner. further information about the incident. from the mail. Officers were able to. receive that the male subject had last. seen the toddler approximately five. minutes before the incident. That same. 5-minute gap, by the way, was later. relayed by another responding officer, Angel Halamo, who also documented. Brady's timeline in the official report. His finding reads, quote, the RP, meaning reporting person or reporting. party, then told me his wife had just. gone out with friends. RP also stated.

there was a 5-minute time gap that he. did not know where his son was, to which. I related this information to Chandler. dispatch to advise the Chandler Fire. Department. Shortly after, the RP found. his son in the pool and saw that his son. was unconscious. The RP got his son out. of the pool and contacted emergency. services. Now, you have a third officer. This is Nathan Duncan, who began his. investigation at approximately 7:45 p.m. From the report, he documented concerns. about one specific access point to the.

backyard, the breakfast nook door. Per. the police report, this door was an. outward opening glass door. The handle. was a lever style handle that measured. 41 in to 42 in from the floor. The. deadbolt measured 39 in from the floor. This door was also equipped with an. alarm. The alarm did not sound when the. door opened. This door did not shut. properly and did not lock. The door was. not self-closing. It appeared to be. malfunctioning at the time. Now, as we.

talk about this, always remember the. knowledge component. Was there a. knowledge of a safety risk? And if there. was, that is important when we do a. legal analysis. Just something to keep. in mind. Now, I will tell you it remains. unclear whether this was the door that. Trigg used to actually access the. backyard, but arguably its compromised. condition does raise important questions. about how the toddler was able to get. outside seemingly undetected. As you. know, we've been following the story. since it broke from the very beginning.

We're trying to clear up any. misinformation that there is about this. case. We want to bring it to you. We. want to do a deep dive on it. And one of. the reasons that we can do that is. because of the amazing support that we. get from our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan. This is America's largest injury law. firm. This is a firm with over a. thousand attorneys. You know why? Because they win a lot. They have. recovered over $25 billion for more than. $500,000 clients. In the past few. months, a client in Florida received $12. million after the insurance company. offered just $350,000. Pennsylvania.

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scanning the QR code on screen. Officer Shank also made some. observations regarding the depth of this. pool and there is even a diagram. included that shows the dimensions and. per the report quote the deepest portion. of the pool was approximately 102 in. deep north end. There was a diving board. at the deepest end of the pool. The. shallow portion of the pool was located. on the south end and was 38 in deep. The. middle area of the pool was 77 in deep.

On the east end of the pool was a large. lounge area, sometimes referred to as a. Baja shelf. The depth of the water in. this area was 17 in deep. So, you know, those levels very important when you're. thinking about a small child. There were. two steps leading onto the shelf, southeast end. The depth of the steps was 5 1/2 in. deep. Now, as we've mentioned. previously, Brady Kaiser told police. that the pool typically had a safety. cover, but on the day of this tragedy, that cover was not in place. Officer.

Tyler Shank made note of the unused pool. covering in the report, too. Here's what. it says. On the southwest portion of the. pool, I observed large netting and a. fabric top rolled up onto PVC carriers. These were covers for the pool that were. not in use at the time. It was later. learned that the covers were in place. most of the time, but were recently. removed so the family could enjoy the. pool. They were never replaced. No pool. gate or barrier was in place at the. time. As indicated above, safety netting.

identified as catch a kid was present. but not in use. And as for why this. cover was not on, this is what Brady. apparently told police. Quote, Brady. described a pool cover the family has, but he didn't put it on because the pool. service company was coming at noon on. Tuesday, so he was planning on putting. it on after the service. This claim. about the pool service was inadvertently. verified on Tuesday, May 13th, when we, the officers, were at the residence. The. pool service was there servicing the. pool. So, there you go. Cooperation for.

what he's saying. Now, Detective Michael. Reitz conducted a recorded interview. with Brady Kaiser, which the report. indicates was captured on bodywn camera. And during this interview, Brady. described what he recalled happening. after Emily left the house that evening. Quote, "After Emily left, Brady made. Trig dinner as he fed the child the. bottle. Trigg finished his dinner and. went into the backyard. Brady was. sitting on a back chair that pointed out. to the backyard out through the back. windows because while he was holding.

their infant child, he wanted to be able. to see Trigg. Trigg was seen in the. grass area of the backyard near a blowup. slide/playhouse. and Brady saw him walk from that area in. the grass up on the elevated portion. where the hot tub was at. That was where. he had seen him last. After seeing Trigg. apparently near the hot tub, Brady quote. thought that he went and got a drink. He. then went back to quote see where Trigg. was at. Brady then went outside and saw. Trigg in the water. He laid their child. on the ground, took his shirt off, and.

dove in the pool. After pulling Trigg. from the pool, Brady carried him inside. and laid him on the ground. There he. started CPR, including breathing into. the mouth. And Brady emphasized multiple. times that he believed Trigg had only. been out of sight briefly, saying, "I. didn't have a clock. Obviously, I don't. know the exact time, but it was moments. It wasn't that he had been out of sight. for long. I asked Brady about the. fiveinut statement that he made to. patrol on scene. He said that he's told. different people 3 minutes or 5 minutes, but wasn't sure the exact timing and.

said it wasn't very long. Now, we'll. talk about this later when we bring in. uh Kurt Alman, Arizona criminal defense. attorney, that this could be chocked off. to just an incredibly traumatic moment. and not giving misinformation. But I do. want you to pay attention to Brady's. mention of the grass area because this. detail is going to come up again later. after investigators reviewed security. footage. So his claim about sitting in a. quote back chair with a view of the. backyard that is also questioned in a. later interview. Now both Brady and. Emily Kaiser, they were interviewed by.

the Arizona Department of Child Safety. following what happened here. And during. this interview, Brady described what. happened after dinner that evening. According to the police report, he was. feeding their infant son a bottle when. Trigg got up from the couch, walked out. the sliding glass door. Brady. acknowledged seeing Trigg head into the. backyard, and said he had told him to. quote, "Stay close." He recalled, "Trig. walked over and was playing in the grass. off to the side of the yard and then I. saw him walk up onto it's kind of like. an elevated platform. I had seen him. there playing around up there and at. that point I have eyes on him." Brady.

said he continued feeding the baby and. believed Trigg had only been out of his. sight briefly. Quote, I was in the. middle of doing that while watching. Trigg and after a moment of being like, you know, I had seen him only a moment. prior and I was like, oh, where is he? Got up, walked out there and immediately. saw him in the pool. And then he. described rescuing Trigg from the water. So when asked by the interviewer Dana. how long it typically takes to feed the. infant, Brady said 15 to 20 minutes. And. he estimated that Trigg was outside for. about 3 minutes from the time he exited.

the house to when he was found in the. pool. And Brady added per the report, I. was home alone. I had both kids and so I. knew I needed to obviously be tending on. both of them. So Trigg wasn't ever out. of my sight for long. But I mean he. abruptly ended that sentence there. Now, something else of interest that comes up. in there. Did Trig Kaiser know how to. swim? Well, according to Emily, Trigg. had taken swim lessons, but he didn't. fully know how to swim. And she. explained that while Trigg knew how to. swim to some extent and could climb the. pool wall, the area where he fell in did.

not have a wall to climb out from. And. the surveillance footage related to the. incident is included in this case file, too, but it remains fully redacted. However, Detective Reeds conducted a. second interview with Brady Kaiser after. noticing or apparently noticing. discrepancies between Brady's account. and the video evidence. And while the. exact nature of what these discrepancies. are is unknown due to all the. redactions, the detective focused. especially on Brady's earlier statement. about where he saw Trigg outside. The. report reads, "I asked Brady about his.

statement that he looked out when Trigg. first went outside and what he saw. He. claimed he saw Trigg off in the grass by. the diving board. I challenged Brady. about that statement because Trigg never. went into the grass area. He responded, "That's my best recollection of that." I. stressed that what he was telling me and. what was on the video are different. Brady responded by saying, "I truly have. nothing that I'm trying to withhold or. hide in any way, shape, or form. All. I've ever tried to do is recount to the. best of my ability what occurred." and. he recognized that he doesn't know.

exactly what happened with Trigg outside. and again stressed that he was watching. his kids but at the time was focused on. the then infant child. Now during dinner. before Trigg went outside, Brady told. police they were watching a basketball. game on TV and the detective pressed on. this detail and asked what Brady was. doing while Trigg was outside. quote, "We spoke for several minutes about the. amount of time Trigg was outside, about. 10 minutes, and what Brady was doing. during that time. He insisted that he.

wasn't on his phone, and even though the. basketball game was on the TV, it's not. where my focus was. It was on my baby.". For the record, the game that was on the. TV was game four of the Knicks and. Celtics. It was still on the TV when. officers arrived and could be seen on. BWC, meaning body warn camera. And we. mentioned earlier that Brady had. apparently told police that he was. sitting in a chair facing the backyard, but it seems like the detective. challenged that. The report reads, quote, I told him that he had previously. stated he was sitting in the chairs to.

look out toward the backyard, but he was. sitting there. Those chairs are visible. on camera DO6. He responded, "I was. sitting on the couch." After being. prompted by his attorney, he described. sitting on the west side of the couch. facing the TV with the sliding glass. door to his right. So, this arguably. calls into question whether Brady's. distraction was truly the infant child. or the basketball game. That's going to. be a question when anybody sees this. reporting. Now, Detective Reets also. reviewed Brady's cell phone records from.

May 12th, uncovering additional details. related to this basketball game, and the. report appears to indicate that Kaiser. had used his phone to place a bet on the. game that he was watching during this. critical time before the drowning. The. report reads, "The first file contained. a single line. It indicated that a $25. wager was placed on Jason Tatum, scoring. more than 40 points. Jason Tatum is a. player on the Boston Celtics. That wager. was a winner, paying $102.50. This wager was placed at 2014 hours.

Eastern time, 1714 hours Arizona time.". Now, this is important to know because. there could be a lot of misinformation. about this. This wager was apparently. made more than an hour before Trigg was. believed to have drowned. Now, at the. conclusion of this second interview, Detective Reitz made a few key. determinations. One being that Trigg was. in the backyard for a full 10 minutes. before Brady found him, longer than the. 3 to 5 minutes that Brady was telling to. police. And per the report, quote, "It. is clear from the video that he did not. go into the water intentionally. Rather,

he tripped and fell in while playing. with an inflatable chair. Trigg was in. the backyard from 1829-42 hours until. Brady found him in the pool at 1839. hours. He was in the water from 183215. until 183907. It is clear Brady's attention was. divided and he was not watching Trigg at. all during the critical times mentioned. during two interviews. He did not know. what Trigg was doing before he fell in. and he did not see Trigg struggling to. swim. So this alleged timeline, right,

these allegations compounded with the. pool safety net not being in place, Trigg's limited swimming ability, statements that he believed conflicted. with video evidence. Detective Reits. concluded that Brady was unaware of what. Trigg was doing at the time. He. submitted the case to the prosecutor's. office for review under an Arizona. statute concerning child abuse through. criminal negligence. And per the police. report that is defined as a person fails. to perceive a substantial and. unjustifiable risk that the result will. occur or that the circumstances exists.

The risk must be of such nature and. degree that the failure to perceive it. constitutes a gross deviation from the. standard of care that a reasonable. person would observe in the situation. Now importantly while detective reached. this conclusion he emphasized that he. doesn't believe this was intentional or. a failure to act. On the contrary, he. noted that Brady responded immediately. upon discovering Trigg in the pool. And. as mentioned earlier, the case. eventually landed on the desk of. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel. Mitchell, where it remained under review. until July 25th when her office.

announced that it would not pursue. charges against Brady Kaiser. And that. decision was based on what they. described as insufficient evidence to. secure a conviction. And in a public. statement, the office said earlier this. month, the Chandler Police Department. submitted the case for review, recommending that Kaiser be charged with. one count of child abuse, a class 4. felony. Kaiser was home alone with his. two children when his three-year-old. son, Trig Kaiser, drowned in the. family's backyard pool in May of this. year. Surveillance video from outside. the home showed how the drowning. occurred and the actual timeline of.

events. In order to convict a person of. this charge, the state has to prove. beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous. jury that the person failed to perceive. a substantial and justifiable risk and. that failure to perceive the risk was a. gross deviation from the standard of. care a reasonable person would show. Every case submitted to the Maricopa. County Attorney's Office is evaluated. using the same standard, whether there. is a reasonable likelihood of. conviction. After careful review of the. evidence submitted by Chandler PD, it. was determined this case does not meet. that standard. And in response, the.

Kaiser family's attorney, Flynn Carry, told ABC News, "We are grateful to law. enforcement and the county attorney for. conducting a thorough investigation and. confirming that this was a tragic. accident." Brady remains in the midst of. the grieving process and is thankful to. be with his family as they heal. together. We appreciate the compassion. and support shown during this difficult. time. And by the way, this report. follows a recent victory for the Kaiser. family on August 8th when the Arizona. Superior Court for Maricopa County. granted Emily Kaiser's request to redact.

two pages of that police report. And. Emily's attorney said that those pages. contain sensitive details surrounding. this tragedy. Shannon Clark, attorney. for the Kaiser family, said, "We're. grateful to Judge Whitten for carefully. balancing the important interest at. stake and allowing a narrow but. meaningful redaction of the Chandler. Police report, removing two pages that. detail the graphic final moments of. Trigg's life. These redactions do not. alter any material facts of the. accident, but they protect the dignity. of a little boy whose memory should. reflect the love and light he brought to. the world. From the start, this case has.

been about protecting Trigg and the. family's ability to grieve privately. This decision allows them and the public. to remember him for the beautiful life. he lived, not the tragic way it ended. And before we go any further, let me. just say, no matter what you think about. this case, this is heartbreaking. This. is devastating for that entire family, including Brady. Okay? No other way to. look at it. This shouldn't have. happened. This is horrible that it. happened. And now their lives will never. be the same. They do have to go through. this grieving process. And at the same.

time, they have to deal with a lot of. public attention on this. So, one of the. things we're hoping to do is if there is. a lot of misinformation about this case, and there's a lot of people making. comments on it, we are just looking at. what the actual filings say and do not. say. All right. Right. So, now I want to. bring on Kurt Alman. So, Kurt is an. Arizona criminal defense attorney, former federal and state prosecutor. Thank you so much for coming on. Uh, this report's significant. I mean, investigators, they lay out how Brady. Kaiser allegedly gave conflicting. accounts of where he was sitting, what.

he saw. If we start there, how much do. you think these inconsistencies. matter legally? Are they red flags? Are. they signs of just a traumatized parent. trying to remember a chaotic moment? >> Well, Jesse, I think I mean I think we. talked about this before, right? We kind. of kind of speculated that the police. maybe had a different timeline or saw. some discrepancies in uh the father's. statement, therefore thought charges. should be brought. In a child abuse.

case, often law enforcement tries to. lock in a statement from a suspect or a. parent or whoever it may be and then. kind of work backwards and see if that. statement is consistent with all the. other physical evidence. It seems here. that the Chandler police felt that there. were enough inconsistencies to show that. that he was trying to hide something or. cover something up and wasn't totally. honest with them. >> And the stuff about the wager, I mean, that's pretty significant. I think it's. significant, but if I read it correctly,

the wager took place while Emily Kaiser. was still at home, but then he indicates. that he's watching the Celtics and the. Knicks play basketball. So, again, I'm. speculating a little bit here, but I. imagine the police with the timeline and. with the physical evidence they had. concluded that he was watching. basketball instead of watching his kids. because he made that wager and was. interested in the game. And therefore, they felt it rose to gross negligence. But the prosecutors the prosecu the. prosecutors disagreed,

>> right? Proving that is totally. different. Great theory, right? But. proving that in front of a court uh in. front of a jury of 12 people, probably. impossible. Next to impossible. >> Why do you say that? Cuz let's be clear. about something right there. I'm not. saying someone should be charged or not. be charged. But you know, there's more. information that's come forward in this. report. We're trying to understand what. the prosecution's decision was here. Why. is it impossible to prove a case like. this? Um, you you know I I probably jumped. saying impossible, but very very.

difficult because I think as we even. talked about before, this is a traumatic. event for everybody involved. He's. trying to make a statement about what he. what happened and what he remembered. pretty quickly after he just found his. son floating in a pool, which had to be. devastating. I'm sure he didn't write. down. In fact, I think even in the. report somewhere he says something, well, I I wasn't watching the clock, but. here's how much time elapsed. His memory. might not be perfect. He's in a panic. state. He's probably in some sort of. shock. So, yes, you can rely on those.

statements to an extent, but they're. probably not something the prosecution. was comfortable with relying on, relying. their whole case on, and that's why uh. probably one of the reasons they didn't. file. >> Well, the surveillance footage was. redacted publicly. Detectives, though, they say in their opinion, it. contradicts uh Brady's version of. events. You have this situation where. investigators noted that the pool net. was off. The door alarm wasn't.

functioning. The child may not have. known how to swim. No one is saying and. potential charges never said that Brady. caused or intended for the death of his. son, obviously. But if we're talking. about criminal negligence, if we're. talking about what the legal duty is for. a parent, are those factors significant? But like you said, they don't rise to. the level of being able to successfully. prosecute. >> Yeah. I I think that's probably what the. prosecution thought here. Even given all.

those facts, if they're all proven true. in front of a jury or wherever it may. be, it might be as simple as looking at. it and going, "Yeah, not the best, probably a mistake. That was an. accident. This is a tragedy." It just. doesn't in our eyes rise to the level of. criminal negligence enough so to bring. child abuse charges. >> This report coming out is obviously. going to raise a lot of comments, a lot. of questions. Is it going to put. pressure on prosecutors to reverse. course? Um, have you seen something like.

that happen? I mean, she's a significant. figure. How much pressure, if any, does. all of this put on prosecutors? I I I think the county attorney Rachel. Mitchell will receive a lot of pressure. and probably is receiving it right now. saying now that this reports out you did. the wrong thing. Would she reverse. course? I think that's unlikely unless. more and significant evidence is. developed, which doesn't sound like it's. going to be the case. This is the. hardest thing for a prosecutor to do to.

decline a case made harder by the fact. that this is a child death, right? Horrific. It is the most difficult thing. though for a prosecutor to look at it. fairly evaluate it and go, we just don't. think there's charges here that we can. bring. It's very easy for a prosecutor. to go, we'll just charge the case and. see what the jury does. That's simple. Takes all the pressure off them. It's. not what happened here. And Rachel. Mitchell made a very courageous, if I. can use that word, decision in this. >> So, you believe the prosecutor got it. right in this case? This is the right.

decision at this point in time. Based on. what I see, I think that's the right. decision. I mean, what what comes from. prosecuting. uh Trigg's father in this? What comes. from that? A and because it's such a. close call and because it's so difficult. to present and probably prove it just. doesn't make sense at this point, let. them suffer their grief without this. hanging over their head as well. I think. it was the right decision. >> Kurt Alman, thank you for taking the. time. Appreciate it. >> Jesse, thank you. Appreciate it.

>> All right, everybody. That's all we have. for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank. you so much for joining us and as. always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you. should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse. Weber. I'll speak to you next time. [Music].