Prosecutor deciding whether to charge Emilie Kiser’s husband with child abuse speaks out

‘Not every tragedy is a crime’


The Arizona prosecutor who is reviewing Emilie Kiser’s husband’s charge recommendation has spoken out, and she says there is often a lot of “misunderstanding” in cases like this.

On 15th July, Chandler Police recommended that Brady Kiser be charged with child abuse after their three-year-old son Trigg drowned in May under his care.

“The Chandler Police Department has completed its investigation into the tragic drowning of three-year-old Trigg Kiser, who died May 18, 2025, after being found unresponsive in his family’s backyard pool,” they said in a statement.

“Following a thorough review of the evidence, investigators have recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser. The case has now been submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review.”

Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell has now confirmed that her office is reviewing the potential charges against Emilie Kiser’s husband in a press conference and spoken out about the recommendation.

“People need to understand that not every tragedy is a crime,” she said, as published by The Arizona Republic. “My heart goes out to the situation. But there’s a difference between civil negligence — where someone can be sued — and criminal negligence — where you can prosecute someone.”

“Civil negligence means that someone’s carelessness results in harm to another person. Criminal negligence is totally different, and that’s what we’re looking for, that’s what we have to have to file charges in this case.”

She explained that to charge Brady Kiser with criminal negligence, her office would have to show that Brady failed to identify “substantial and unjustifiable risk” that a “reasonable person would observe”.

A reporter then asked what her “threshold” is for charging “a parent that loses a child” and she replied: “Well, the basic threshold, obviously, is what the law requires.”

Mitchell refused to provide an exact timeline on when the Brady Kiser case will be complete, because they might still have to send it back to the police for further investigation.

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Featured image by: @emiliekiser/Instagram 

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