Father arrested after daughter nearly drowns

Deepa Bharath

COSTA MESA -- A 4-year-old girl almost drowned Tuesday afternoon in a

hotel swimming pool when her father dozed off, police said, marking the

first water safety-related incident reported this summer season.

Charles Michael Jimenez, 44, of Costa Mesa was arrested on suspicion

of child endangerment after the near-drowning of his daughter in the

swimming pool at Costa Mesa Motor Inn, 2277 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa

police officials said.

Police said Jimenez, his wife, his 6-year-old son and daughter were

staying at the hotel. Both children, whose names were not released,

suffer from varying levels of autism, said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Dale

Birney.

About 3:30 p.m., a visitor to the hotel found Jimenez asleep on a

chair by the pool while the girl was floating face down in the water,

Birney said.

“He immediately jumped in the pool and gave her CPR,” Birney said.

“She started breathing right away.”

Birney said officers don’t know how long the girl was in the water,

but she was taken to Hoag Hospital and released the same day.

“But we know she had gone into the pool wearing flotationdevices,” he

said. “However, at the time she was found, the flotation devices had been

removed and placed outside at the edge of the pool. We don’t know if she

removed them or somebody else removed them for her.”

Police reported the incident to the Orange County district attorney,

who has forwarded the case to the Orange County Social Services

Department, Birney said. The girl and her brother are now with their

mother, who was also in the hotel at the time but not near the pool, he

said.

According to court officials, Jimenez was also arrested for unlawful

possession of a shopping cart, an offense he pleaded guilty to at Harbor

Justice Center on Thursday. He was released Thursday because the district

attorney did not file charges relating to child endangerment.

The incident “could have been a lot worse” and tragic, said Brooks

Reedy, manager at the Costa Mesa Motor Inn, where the incident took

place.

“Parents need to tend to their kids,” he said. “A pool is not an

extension of a playground. It’s a matter of life and death.”