FATHER CONVICTED OF CHILD ENDANGERMENT FOR THROWING 7-YEAR-OLD SON OVER THE SIDE OF BOAT IN NEWPORT BEACH HARBOR

FATHER CONVICTED OF CHILD ENDANGERMENT FOR THROWING 7-YEAR-OLD SON OVER THE SIDE OF BOAT IN NEWPORT BEACH HARBOR

SANTA ANA – A father was convicted and sentenced today for throwing his 7-year-old son over the side of a boat in Newport Beach Harbor into the path of busy oncoming boat traffic and resisting and delaying police officers while being arrested. Sloan Steven Briles, 35, Irvine, pleaded guilty to a court offer to one felony count of child abuse and endangerment and one misdemeanor count of resisting an officer. He was sentenced to three years of formal probation, one year of a child abusers treatment program, and 180 days in a Veterans Administration residential treatment program. The People objected to the sentence, arguing that the defendant should be ordered to serve additional time in jail.

At approximately 1:00 p.m. on Aug. 28, 2011, Briles was on a Newport Beach harbor cruise aboard the Queen with his girlfriend and two young sons from a prior marriage. The defendant was under the influence of alcohol and poked his 7-year-old son in the chest. He repeatedly slapped his son in the face, making the child cry and ask the defendant to stop because the defendant was hurting him.

Briles then picked up the little boy and threw him approximately 10 feet over the side of the boat. At that time, the Queen was in a busy boating area with a large amount of boat traffic, so the first mate stalled the boat and maneuvered it to protect the child from being struck by another vessel. The captain threw the crying child, who was treading water, a life ring.

Briles then jumped into the water to avoid the angry passengers on the Queen who began to yell at him. He made no attempt to swim to his son’s aid. Another boat helped the child out of the water, but the crew of the Queen asked the other boat not to help Briles, who was eventually pulled back onto the Queen.

When contacted by deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD), who patrol the harbor, Briles ignored the deputies orders to stand, struggled with them as they attempted to help him to his feet, and made his body go limp to make it difficult as deputies tried to remove him from the boat. Briles had to be dragged from the Queen to the OCSD Harbor Patrol boat.

Deputy District Attorney Cyril Yu of the Family Protection Unit prosecuted this case.

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