Mom: Video of son getting dunked in toilet was joke; no charges to be filed

LEESBURG, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Cell phone video of a Florida mother dunking her son’s head in the toilet, while flushing it, has sparked outrage.  However, Kaitlyn Wolf, who’s in the video, wants people to know one thing.

“I’m not a bad mother. We were just, it was me and my older son playing a joke on him.  He didn’t get his face into the toilet water. It was just barely the tip of his head,”  the Leesburg woman said.

Wolf says her 3-year-old son said a bad word which is what prompted her to think of some form of discipline,  – which she calls a “swirly.”

“I was going to put soap in his mouth, but then he chased me around the house for 10 minutes," Wolf said.  "By the time I caught him, I was like, 'Oh we’re just going to stick his head in the toilet,' like as a joke.”  

She says she then sent the video to her babysitter, who sent it to someone else, who posted it on Facebook. 

“If my son would have continued filming after, he was saying ‘Do it again! Do it again!’  He was just asking us to do it again when I was in the shower.  He knows he wasn’t being hurt.  We were just playing with him,” Wolf said.

Leesburg police officers investigated and forwarded their findings to the Florida Department of Children and Families.  According to a report, DCF investigators went to the home on Thursday and determined that, “it was done in fun, and they had been wrestling with mom just prior to the video.” 

“My kids are in no way abused; they never have been. We roughhouse, they roughhouse,” Wolf added.

Through a separate and independent criminal investigation by the Leesburg Police Department, detectives forwarded video evidence to the State Attorney's Office, with a request to file a warrant for the mother's arrest. 

"The overall assessment documented by the Forensic Team listed positive finding of threatened harm of mental injury due to bizarre punishment," the Leesburg Police Department said in a news release. "However, it was indeterminate of physical abuse and indeterminate of neglect due to inadequate supervision."

The Leesburg Police Department is now recommending "continued intervention for the welfare of the children involved" and is requesting that DCF assure the children remain safe and that they have a safety plan.