Widow of Brevard veteran Gregory Edwards takes plea deal in accidental drowning of child

Kathleen Edwards, the widow of the army veteran whose death following a violent confrontation with Brevard corrections officers at the county jail raised garnered national attention and prompted protests, took a plea deal Wednesday in the case involving the drowning death in 2020 of her 1-year-old child.

Edwards — who for years fought for an outside investigation into the 2018 death of her husband Gregory Lloyd Edwards — stood quietly before Brevard Circuit Court Judge Charles Crawford Wednesday and pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was originally charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after Brevard County sheriff's investigators said she failed to supervise the toddler and secure her home's pool.

The plea means Edwards, a disabled veteran herself, will avoid prison and receive a year of probation, a stipulation that Crawford said could be cut in half with the completion of a parenting class and continued mental health treatment.

Long legal saga

The plea ends another lengthy and painful legal chapter for Edwards, which began after her 38-year-old husband Gregory Edwards died Dec. 10, 2018. Gregory Edwards — like his wife, a disabled war veteran —was arrested after assaulting a toy drive worker at a Walmart in West Melbourne during a mental-health episode. He was later found unresponsive in a jail cell after be strapped to a restraint chair by correction officers.

Both Kathleen and Gregory Edwards were diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder as a result of their Army service.

The charges against Kathleen Edwards stem from the drowning of the 18-month-old child in July 2020. Friends and relatives who had been helping care for the child while Edwards was suffering from PTSD-related anxiety left the home about and hour before the boy drowned, according to sheriff's investigators. Edwards's mother continued to stay with her daughter.

The child, who deputies said was unsupervised, wandered into patio area of the home and got into the pool. Edwards and her mother soon realized the child was missing and found him floating in the water. The child was unresponsive and was in a coma for several days. The child died after the decision was made to take him off life support. Edwards had faced 30 years in state prison if convicted on the original charge.

"The primary reason she accepted the plea deal was to finally move on with her life," said Criminal Defense Attorney Mark Eiglarsh. "The immense stress of this case, which has lasted for nearly four years, has taken a significant toll on her. She is thrilled to finally put this chapter behind her."

"My client should never have been criminally charged; given the facts of this case, such charges are unprecedented. Unfortunately, the prosecutors prioritized politics over the rule of law and compassion," Eiglarsh told FLORIDA TODAY.

Plea for justice ends in tragedy

Before her arrest, Edwards raised questions about the sheriff's office and its tactics, mental health treatment for veterans, and transparency in the death of her husband.

Security video of the incident at the Brevard County Jail Complex — released nearly two years later after FLORIDA TODAY sued Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey — showed the moments of the confrontation and the aftermath as the jail staff attempted to treat Edwards. Edwards, covered by a spit hood, went unconscious in the restraint chair with barbs from a stun gun still in his back, pepper spray still on his unwashed face, reports show.

In July 2019, the office of State Attorney Phil Archer determined in a review of information provided by the sheriff’s in-house investigation that the use of force against Edwards was justified and commended the actions of jail staff, causing further outcry.

Then as the nation turned its focus on police tactics in the wake of the George Floyd in-custody death in Minneapolis, Kathleen Edwards, who continued to advocate for an independent investigation and a release of the jail video.

Tragedy compounded by child's death

Edwards, who spoke during a Cocoa march for justice that drew over 4,000 people in June 2020, however, continued to struggle with her own PTSD. A week after the rally, Sheriff Ivey, along with several deputies turned up to her home at night to speak and hug Kathleen Edwards, an episode she would later say stirred up mental anguish even more as she continued to contemplate a lawsuit against the sheriff.

“Several weeks prior to my son Gregory Edwards Jr.’s drowning…I was emotionally and psychologically suffering from PTSD as a result of the many traumatic events that occurred in my life prior to the drowning," Edwards stated in a court documents.

“Some of those events included but were not limited to: serving in the armed forces as a combat soldier in Iraq; The emotional devastation caused by my belief that my husband, also a combat veteran, was killed by sheriff’s deputies at the jail, while I was nine-months pregnant; and the unannounced night time visit by Sheriff Ivey at my home,” she wrote.

Several people offered to watch Edwards’ Grant-Valkaria home after Ivey's visit also but were told to leave Edwards at the urging of her mother less than an hour before Edwards' 18-month-old Greg Jr., slipped into a pool on June 27, records show.

By December, the widow sued the sheriff’s office contending that her husband's Constitutional rights were violated by the jail's staff as it became increasingly clear criminal charges could be filed against her by the same agency that was involved with her husband's death. A portion of that case, however, was dismissed by a federal judge earlier last year.

By then, Edwards left Brevard County, seeking focusing on rebuilding her life, her family noted.

But by March 2021, the state attorney’s office filed an aggravated manslaughter of a child charge against Edwards.

New hope for moving forward

Four years and multiple hearings, interviews, and plea discussions later, Edwards, through her attorney, decided to take the latest offer so she could move on with her life away from Brevard County.

"While we are disappointed that prosecutors did not dismiss the case outright, we are pleased that we rejected previous felony plea offers and persevered until the case was ultimately resolved as a mere misdemeanor," Eiglarsh said.

"Kathleen will continue to undergo therapy for the severe PTSD she developed while honorably serving our country in the armed forces. She remains committed to being an extraordinary mother to her daughter."

J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com . Twitter: @JDGallop.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Widow of Brevard veteran Gregory Edwards takes plea deal in accidental drowning of child