Irving police have arrested the woman whose three children died last month after swimming at an apartment pool.
Patricia Denise Allen, 30, is charged with one count of injury to a child, a second-degree felony. Allen was released Saturday morning on bond, police said.
Police initially investigated the drownings as accidental deaths, but police said Friday they discovered facts and evidence during the course of the investigation that led to the criminal charge.
"Certain facts and circumstances came to light that merit us filing a case," said Officer James McLellan, spokesman for the Irving Police Department.
Emergency crews were called June 24 to the MacArthur Place at 183 apartments in the 2300 block of North MacArthur Boulevard, where they said Allen was in the pool with her five children.
The five siblings were swimming in the shallow end of the pool with their mother when, according to police, the three older siblings drifted into the deep end as their mother's back was turned.
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Police said not one of them, including Allen, knew how to swim.
A maintenance worker jumped in the pool and pulled two of the children out, and a police officer rescued the third. All three children were transported to Children's Medical Center in Dallas, where they later died.
They were identified as Anthony Smith, 11; August Smith, 10; and Treshawn Smith, 9.
"The circumstance of trying to manage five young children in a pool, not being able to swim without any safety equipment and some other circumstances lead us to the point it was reckless," said McLellan.
Allen's attorney gave a brief statement Friday outside the Irving jail where Allen was booked on a $50,000 bond. She was released Saturday after posting bail, police said.
"Ms. Allen has been through a horrific ordeal," said attorney Lacey Turley Stutz. "We are confident when all the facts are developed in this matter it will be dismissed. We have no additional comments at this time."
Witnesses told police they believe Allen was using her cell phone prior to the drowning and said Allen was facing the three kids who went underwater, contradicting what Allen reportedly told investigators. One witness said she appeared to be texting.
"I would not want to make a speculation on whether she was lying," said McLellan. "But there are some discrepancies between the times that we've talked to her. But that just might be the stress of what happened."
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services says the agency took Allen's other two children, ages 3 and 6 years old, into their care after she was arrested Friday.
