Drowning case goes to trial

The owner of the pool found the boy but could not revive him.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — The jury in a wrongful-death lawsuit will be asked to decide whether the former owner of a fence company shares any of the blame for the drowning death of a 5-year-old Howland boy in 2004.

Roxanne Preston of 3775 Bellwood Drive filed the suit against All Vinyl Fences and Decks Inc., saying the company was negligent in the construction of two vinyl fences in the backyard of the home at 3907 Bellwood, where her son, Ali Zaire, drowned.

Different owners run the fence company now and are not part of the suit.

In opening statements Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, Atty. John C. Henck of Cleveland, representing Preston, said the township zoning regulations established in March 1997 require any swimming pool 2 feet deep or more or at least 300 square feet in size to have a 6-foot high fence or wall to protect children from getting into the pool from the street or neighborhood.

He said neither the homeowner nor the company obtained a zoning permit, however.

Henck said there were several flaws in the construction and design of the two fences around the pool where the boy drowned.

An outer fence had a 3-foot-wide opening to allow a riding mower to pass through, a gate with a broken latch, a 9-inch-wide opening next to a shed, and a gap near the ground caused by an incorrectly installed post, Henck said.

The inner fence surrounding the in-ground pool was only 4 feet high, he said, short enough for the boy to reach over and unlatch.

But Atty. Thomas J. Wilson of Youngstown, representing the owner of the company at the time of the fence construction, Tina Hall of Southington, said the reason the boy drowned had little to do with the fences.

At 44 inches tall, it is a “physical impossibility” for the boy to have reached over the 51-inch-tall inside fence and let himself in, Wilson said, adding that the latch was 44 inches off the ground.

“Everything for the pool was done correctly,” Wilson told the jurors during his opening statements.

“The evidence will show that this would not have happened if the child had not left his yard,” he said. “If you build the best fence imaginable and the gate is left open, it provides absolutely no security.”

Both attorneys said the boy was playing in the driveway with two younger sisters when he wandered off sometime after 7 p.m. The owner of the pool, Michael Raggozine, found him in the pool a little before 9 p.m. and tried unsuccessfully to revive him.

Henck said testimony from an expert witness will show that a fence builder has a responsibility to know the zoning regulations in any community where he or she works and the professionalism to design fences safely.

Henck said Raggozine paid a cash settlement to the boy’s mother before the lawsuit was filed against the fence company.

runyan@vindy.com