As Discovery Deadline Looms, FOIA Request Seeks Crucial Evidence
A four-month-old boy was put to sleep on his back in an Ingenuity Dream & Grow bassinet in August 2019. He was later found on his stomach. He died.
In January 2022, a one-month-old girl reportedly died under similar circumstances, after being placed on her back in the same model of bassinet.
The two deaths, documented in federal incident reports and cited in a proposed class action, do not establish that the bassinets caused either fatality. But they are part of a troubling record of complaints about a popular infant product – and a growing dispute over what federal safety regulators knew about its design.
Now, a recent Freedom of Information Act request has raised a particularly pointed question: What exactly did the Consumer Product Safety Commission conclude in a safety investigation involving the bassinets five years ago?
The answer could be important to a pending lawsuit against Atlanta-based Kids2, LLC, the manufacturer of the Ingenuity Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet named in both infant-death reports. Plaintiffs allege that the product’s unusual support structure allows its sleeping surface to tilt, potentially causing infants to roll into unsafe positions before they are developmentally capable of doing so on their own.
Privately held Kids2 also markets the Baby Einstein and Bright Starts brands and generates an estimated $365 million in annual revenue, according to business-data firm Growjo. Kids2 denies that its bassinets are defective and disputes allegations that its products caused infant deaths.
The controversy took on new urgency following laboratory testing published last month by Consumer Reports, which found issues with multiple brands of cantilevered bassinets. The cantilevered design is popular because it allows the bassinet to extend over an adult bed, making it easier for parents to reach their baby. But Consumer Reports warned consumers against buying cantilevered bassinets after its tests identified potentially hazardous tilting in several models, including the Kids2 Dream & Grow.
The popular cantilevered design, according to an expert quoted by CR, “is a concern because the babies who will sleep in bassinets are newborn to just a few months old, and cannot sit up or reliably move their heads from side to side.” If a baby rolls into an unsafe position in the bassinet, “they are too young to be able to reorient themselves and may suffocate.” Consumer Reports advised parents to avoid cantilevered bassinets.
In a statement to CR, Kids2 disputed the magazine’s findings and maintained that its product meets applicable federal safety standards.
A FOIA request seeks a missing piece
FOIA requests to the federal government can be an important early warning of bad publicity, litigation to come, or uncertainties to be hedged and gamed out. They can also be a stand-in for civil discovery.
FOIAengine recently added CPSC’s FOIA requests to its database. Last week, we examined how lawyers use the act to obtain government records that may prove useful in litigation, sometimes even before those records emerge through discovery. This week’s case offers a particularly revealing example: a FOIA request seeking to uncover what federal safety regulators concluded about a widely-sold baby bassinet now at the center of a proposed class action.
On May 12, 2026, Charleston, S.C.-based attorney Harper Segui of plaintiff’s firm Lee Segui filed a sweeping Freedom of Information Act request seeking records of the CPSC’s dealings with Kids2 over the Ingenuity Dream & Grow bassinet.
Segui is listed as a co-lead counsel in the class action, Aaron v. Kids2. The case, in federal district court in Atlanta, was filed in February 2024. Chief Judge Leigh Martin May set a December 22 deadline to end fact discovery, with pre-class certification motions expected early in 2027.
With the fact-discovery deadline approaching, lawyer Segui filed a broad FOIA request. She sought, among other things, “investigation opening and closing documents” relating to the CPSC’s review of the Kids2 bassinet. Of particular note was Segui’s reference to a November 19, 2021, CPSC investigation closure letter, said to have been addressed to Cheryl A. Possenti, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based partner at Goldberg Segalla who specializes in product liability and consumer product safety matters. Segui described having knowledge of the closure letter because it was “identified by Kids2,” but her request didn’t disclose what the CPSC concluded. Possenti did not respond to our questions about the closure letter and her representation of Kids2.
In her FOIA request, Segui sought considerably more than the closure letter itself. She also asked for “all records” regarding consumer complaints, reports of injuries and deaths, testing data, engineering analyses, internal staff assessments and communications between CPSC officials and Kids2. She also sought records showing whether agency staff considered a recall, stop-sale order or other corrective action, as well as documents concerning the agency’s participation in developing safety standards for cantilevered bassinets.
Perhaps most significantly, Segui also asked for all documents relating to what she described as the CPSC’s determination that the bassinet “did not have a problematic tilt,” a conclusion she attributed to representations made by Kids2 in litigation.
Here’s the full text of Segui’s FOIA request, as documented by FOIAengine based on CPSC records:
1. Incident Reports and Consumer Complaints: All incident reports, consumer complaints, death reports, injury reports, emergency room data, and related records received by or maintained by the CPSC concerning the Kids2 Ingenuity Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet from January 1, 2015 to the present.
2. CPSC Investigation Records: All records relating to any CPSC investigation, review, inquiry, or assessment of Kids2, LLC (f/k/a Kids2, Inc.) concerning the Ingenuity Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet, including but not limited to: Investigation opening and closing documents, including the November 19, 2021 closure letter to Cheryl Possenti from Kids2, identified by Kids2; Testing data, engineering reports, or safety analyses submitted by Ingenuity or its consultants to CPSC; All staff memoranda, assessments, findings, and recommendations generated in connection with any such investigation; All communications between CPSC staff and Kids2, LLC regarding the bassinet’s tilt angle, cantilever design, sleeping surface slope, or safety compliance; and All documents relating to the CPSC’s determination that the bassinet “did not have a problematic tilt,” as represented by Kids2 in this litigation.
3. Regulatory and Standards Communications: All records relating to CPSC’s participation in, or communications with, ASTM International concerning bassinet safety standards, including but not limited to: The CPSC Staff Letter to ASTM Subcommittee Chair for Bassinets dated December 7, 2021; The CPSC Staff Letter to ASTM F15-18 Bassinet Elevated Surfaces dated April 27, 2023; All records relating to CPSC’s review of ASTM F2194-25 and the Federal Register notice published on September 10, 2025 inviting public comment on the revised mandatory standard; and all records relating to the CPSC’s determination that ASTM F2194-25 improves bassinet and cradle safety and its adoption as the mandatory federal standard effective February 21, 2026.
4. Recall, Stop-Sale, and Corrective Action Records: All records relating to any consideration, discussion, recommendation, or decision by CPSC staff regarding whether to initiate a recall, request corrective action, issue a stop-sale order, or take any other adverse action against Kids2, LLC with respect to the Ingenuity Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet.
5. Communications with Kids2: All communications between the CPSC and Kids2, LLC (or its representatives, counsel, or agents) concerning the Ingenuity Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet, including but not limited to emails, letters, meeting minutes, and teleconference notes.
6. CPSC SaferProducts.gov Data: All incident reports submitted to SaferProducts.gov referencing Kids2, the Ingenuity brand, or the Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet. (Date Range for Record Search: From 05/01/2018 To 05/12/2026)
Segui’s request raised an issue critical to the class action: Did the CPSC determine that the Dream & Grow’s design was safe, or did the agency simply close an investigation without taking enforcement action?
The closure letter and underlying records could help answer that question. They might also reveal what evidence the agency considered; whether its staff disagreed about the product’s safety; and whether regulators considered further action.
We contacted lawyer Segui to see whether the CPSC has released the reported closure letter or other requested records. We also asked her what she believes the records may show. She did not respond.
The timing of the investigation’s reported closure would have been significant for another reason. Just 18 days later, on December 7, 2021, two CPSC staff engineering psychologists wrote to an ASTM International subcommittee responsible for bassinet safety standards, warning about potential hazards associated with cantilevered bassinets generally.
In their letter, the CPSC staff members described incidents dating back to 2016 in which infants reportedly rolled into the sides of cantilevered bassinets or onto their stomachs. Four of the incidents identified in the accompanying records involved deaths between 2019 and 2021.
The staff warned that the products could move and bounce differently from traditional four-legged bassinets, potentially causing a sleeping surface to tilt during an infant’s normal movements. The letter urged ASTM to consider additional performance requirements to reduce the likelihood of unexpected infant rollover.
The allegations against Kids2
In the proposed class action against Kids2, four consumers from Florida, Illinois, California and New Jersey accused Kids2 of selling bassinets that were not reasonably safe for their intended use. The allegations focus on the Ingenuity Dream & Grow’s cantilevered construction, in which the sleeping compartment is supported from one side rather than by legs at all four corners.
The complaint cites reports submitted to the CPSC’s SaferProducts.gov database concerning the two infant deaths. It also identifies at least nine additional reports involving alleged tilting or unexpected infant movement.
The four named plaintiffs seek relief under federal and state warranty, consumer-protection and related laws. The litigation is principally a consumer class action alleging that purchasers were sold products with an undisclosed safety problem; it is not a wrongful-death lawsuit.
In an October 31, 2025 answer to the complaint, Kids2 denied the central allegations of unsafe design, deceptive marketing and resulting damages. The company also disputed the suggestion that its bassinets caused infant deaths. Kids2 did not respond to our questions about the pending litigation, CPSC’s actions, Consumer Reports’ warnings, and the infant deaths.
What the CPSC knew – and what it did
The CPSC’s regulatory record reflects longstanding concern about uneven bassinet sleeping surfaces.
In April 2024, the CPSC proposed strengthening federal safety requirements for bassinets and cradles. The commission’s staff cited hazards associated with products that do not sit level, including reports of infants rolling into potentially dangerous positions. The proposal specifically cited two deaths, three reported injuries, and 95 non-injury incidents involving bassinets or cradles that did not sit level. It explained that uneven sleeping surfaces could cause infants to roll into positions that increased the risk of suffocation. But the proposal was not finalized. A separate CPSC rulemaking incorporating ASTM International safety standards for bassinets and cradles took effect in February 2026. The agency’s broader 2024 proposal remains pending.
Meanwhile, the reported infant deaths, the pending litigation and Consumer Reports’ latest findings have kept the Dream & Grow under scrutiny.
For parents deciding where their newborns will sleep, the distinction between a product that satisfies an existing standard and one that remains safe during ordinary use is more than a technical question.
And for the parties to the proposed class action, the unanswered question is what the CPSC’s investigators concluded five years ago – and whether that conclusion still stands up to scrutiny today.
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John A. Jenkins, co-creator of FOIAengine, is a Washington journalist and publisher whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, and elsewhere. He is a four-time recipient of the American Bar Association’s Gavel Award Certificate of Merit for his legal reporting and analysis. He is the author of The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist. His latest book is Summer of ’71: Five Months That Changed America, about the fateful year before Watergate. Click here to watch the official book trailer. Jenkins founded Law Street Media in 2013. Prior to that, he was President of CQ Press, the textbook and reference publishing enterprise of Congressional Quarterly. FOIAengine is a product of PoliScio Analytics (PoliScio.com), a new venture specializing in U.S. political and governmental research, co-founded by Jenkins and Washington lawyer Randy Miller. Learn more about FOIAengine here. To review FOIA requests mentioned in this article, subscribe to FOIAengine.
Write to John A. Jenkins at JAJ@PoliScio.com.