Man Who Threw 7-Year-Old Son Off Boat Convicted Today, Is Jail-Free
Sloane Steven Briles aka Father of the Year
Sloan Steven Briles pleaded guilty to one felony count of child abuse and endangerment and one misdemeanor count of resisting an officer, reports CBS LA.
The suspect's attorney, Brian Gurwitz, told The OC Register, "What he admitted is that he did something that put his son at great risk while he was intoxicated."
Briles, a 35-year-old former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, tossed his 7-year-old son overboard during a Newport Harbor cruise and initially pleaded not guilty, claiming that the two were just playing. Witnesses say Briles was drunk and fighting with his girlfriend before the incident.
Prosecutors say Briles poked his son in the chest and slapped him in the face before throwing him approximately 10 feet off the boat into incoming traffic. Why? Because the boy was crying about an argument between his father and his father's girlfriend. Three boaters came to the boy's rescue, and one pulled the boy to safety. Briles reacted aggressively to authorities who boarded the boat to arrest him.
After the case was denied by Orange County's Veterans Court in November, it resumed its place at criminal court in Santa Ana.
Briles was sentenced today - under a sentencing deal to keep him free from jail - to three years of formal probation, one year in a child-abusers treatment program and 180 days in a residential alcohol-treatment program run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
