Daycare owners arrested in San Jose child drownings

13.10.2023 23:49

EastBayTimes.com

Daycare owners arrested in San Jose child drownings

SAN JOSE — The mother-daughter owners of an Almaden-area daycare where two children drowned in a pool earlier this month have been arrested on suspicion of child-endangerment crimes, authorities said Friday. Shahim Gheblehshenas, 64, and Nina Fathizadeh, 41, were booked at the Santa Clara County Main Jail and were released after posting bail, records show. They are expected to be arraigned at a later date. The arrests are the culmination of an investigation closely watched both locally and across the country after the deaths garnered national headlines and looming questions about how two 1-year-old girls — identified as Payton Cobb, […]

Shahin Gheblehshenas, 64, and Nina Fathizadeh, 41, were booked at the Santa Clara County Main Jail and were released after posting bail, records show. They are expected to be arraigned at a later date.

The arrests are the culmination of an investigation closely watched both locally and across the country after the deaths garnered national headlines and looming questions about how two 1-year-old girls — identified as Payton Cobb, of Hollister, and Lillian Hanan, of San Jose — ended up in a pool at the Happy Happy Home Daycare on Fleetwood Drive the morning of Oct. 2.

Both children died after being rushed to a hospital. A third child who was found in the water with them survived.

In the wake of the drownings, the state Department of Social services suspended the license for the home-based facility, and warned that the owners risked being barred from operating a daycare again. They were also fined $11,000.

State regulators have issued multiple citations to the facility over the past year for a variety of infractions. The most recent was for not properly documenting their checks on sleeping children under their care. They also were cited in January for having one more infant than is allowed under their license.

But regulators never found issue with the pool’s safety after agreeing to license the facility in early 2021. As recently as January, state officials specifically noted in their reports that the property’s pool met all of California’s requirements for such facilities — noting that the pool is surrounded by a five-foot-tall fence.

The fence is made from a “hard mesh” material that lets those outside see into the pool area and has a self-closing and self-latching gate, according to an inspection report.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Staff writers Rick Hurd, Jakob Rodgers and Austin Turner contributed to this report.