Ashley Danback was the lifeguard on duty when two brothers, Jack Jiang, 16, and Chu Ming Zheng, drowned while swimming in a pool in Bayonne in 2022, Hudson County Prosecutor Wayne Mello.
Danback is charged with false swearing, related to statements made during the investigation of the deaths of the brothers, Mello said. The statements were made after the investigation began and did not contribute to the deaths of the brothers, Mello said.
The brothers were in the deep end of the Lincoln Community School pool in June 2022, being monitored by three lifeguards when they were spotted in distress, Bayonne police said. A guard and two others removed them from the pool and immediately began life-saving measures, before they were transferred to a nearby hospital, where they were pronounced dead, police said.
The family of the brothers has filed a $100 million lawsuit, claiming their death was a result of negligence. In the lawsuit, Danback, a defendant in the case, is accused of never entering the pool or doing anything to prevent the brothers from drowning.
Danback was on her phone away from the pool area while the boys were in the water, the lawsuit alleges.
"Danback was never in the pool area until after the boys were at the bottom of the dive well," according to the suit. "The entire interview Danback provided to the Detective consists of blatant and calculated misrepresentations of what actually happened, created by Danback in a shameless effort to absolve herself from any responsibility for the drowning deaths that occurred just two days prior."
Darryl Zaslow, an attorney for the family, accused Danback of engaging in "a malicious cover-up."
"Instead of cooperating with the investigating police officers, she purposely and intentionally lied with every breath and word she spoke," Zaslow wrote in the suit. "Danback engaged in obstructionist behavior and then destroyed her cell phone knowing full well it would be evidence against her."
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