A veteran crime reporter at KOLD in Tucson and his wife, who is a former reporter at KGUN, are both facing serious criminal charges.
Som Lisaius and his wife Krystin Sorich Lisaius were arraigned today on three criminal charges including one count of child abuse.
On May 15 Lisaius and his wife took their four-month-old daughter to a Tucson hospital after she was found to be unresponsive and lethargic. When the hospital requested to draw blood from the little girl, Lisaius and his wife became uncooperative, an Oro Valley, AZ Police report says. After their daughter was taken to another hospital, tests revealed she had cocaine in her system.
Krystin Lisaius told police she ingested cocaine around 8 p.m. on the night of May 14. She said 30 minutes after breastfeeding the child, at 8 a.m. the next morning, her daughter was “wabbly” limp, unable to wake up, and her eyes were rolling in the back of her head. The baby’s godfather, who was in the home that night, and was also questioned by police, told investigators he and the couple used cocaine around midnight, after a family gathering at the house.
According to the police report, Som Lisaius first denied he used cocaine, but later admitted to it after police told him his wife had already copped to it. He also told police he used cocaine about “every six weeks or so.”
After obtaining a search warrant for the couple’s house, police found 1.59 grams cocaine and a small black digital scale among other pieces of suspected drug paraphernalia.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Lisaius graduated from Boston University in 1998 with a Masters in Broadcast Journalism. He had worked at KOLD for more than 16 years. He last appeared on air May 21. TVSpy reached out to KOLD to confirm whether Lisaius is still employed there, but have not heard back. His bio has been removed from the station’s website. Krystin Lisaius was a former intern at KOLD and has been working as a freelance writer.
The child is expected to fully recover, and is in the care of the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
Here’s a KGUN video from 2014 when Sorich and Lisaius were married in Mexico:
>UPDATE 6/28: KOLD GM Nick Ulmer told TVSpy “Som Lisaius no longer works at KOLD TV.”