On Monday, Jeffrey W. Henry, a co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, was arrested in Texas near the border with Mexico on multiple charges in connection to the boy’s death. On Friday, the office of the Kansas attorney general announced that Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Tyler Austin Miles, its former operations director, had been charged with 20 criminal counts, including involuntary manslaughter, aggravated endangering of a child and aggravated battery.

“Verrückt” is German for “crazy” or “insane,” and the slide was built to thrill.

Riders climbed 264 steps to the top before sitting in a raft that plummeted from a high point of about 17 stories and then soared over a crest on their way to a runoff pool at the bottom. Netting covering the length of the slide, supported by metal poles, was meant to keep riders from falling off.

The indictment portrayed a company that ignored its own warnings and hurried to construct a towering water slide in an effort to impress the producers of a Travel Channel show, “Xtreme Waterparks,” which featured the slide in an episode.

In that pursuit, Schlitterbahn rushed to build a prototype without proper testing, did not involve engineers in all phases of its design and opened the slide to riders of all ages despite concerns about weight limits, the authorities said.

Mr. Henry, who was also one of the water slide’s designers, expressed concerns before the slide opened that he could be hurt or killed riding it, according to records obtained by investigators.