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The dad who allegedly got drunk and threw his 7-year-old overboard during a Newport Harbor cruise last month is being charged with child abuse.Sloan Steven Briles, 35, is being charged with felony child endangerment and one misdemeanor count of resisting and delaying police officersthe Orange County Register reports. Briles could face six years in prison.
Our ranking father of the year told reporters that the incident was good old-fashioned horseplay. “It didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary,” he said. “We were up to the key, and him and I were screwing around, and we just jumped out."
Neither the Orange County prosecutors nor the boy's mother bought that story. The DA's office is accusing Briles of poking his son in the chest and slapping him in the face, before tossing him off the boat and into the way of oncoming boat traffic — all under the influence of alcohol.
Briles jumped in after the boy, but not before one ship captain swerved to avoid the boy and another captain tossed the boy a lifesaver and brought him aboard.
Briles is set to be arraigned at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on Sept. 26. He is free on $100,000 bail.
