Charges Are Dismissed in Pool Scare

An Orange County judge Friday threw out felony child abuse charges against the athletic director and two former coaches at Huntington Beach’s Marina High School that stemmed from their failure to call 911 after a student nearly drowned.

“I feel relieved,” Athletic Director Paul Renfrow said after the ruling by Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel in Santa Ana. “I was surprised when the charges were filed in the first place. It was like a train going down the track out of control.”

The incident occurred Sept. 19, 2002, during a regular morning workout for the varsity water polo team. The two coaches, Scott A. Pentilla and Brian Akian, had agreed to let the swimmers quit early if one of them could swim four laps of the 25-yard pool underwater. As the selected swimmer set out on the task, however, another team member -- Sean Wardell, then 16 -- tried swimming the same distance on the surface while holding his breath.

At some point, according to court testimony, Wardell ended up immobile at the bottom of the pool. One teammate pulled him to the surface, then, believing his distress to be faked, let him sink again.

When Austin Honrath, another team member, finally got Wardell out of the water, Honrath told the court, Wardell’s body was rigid and his face bluish-gray. But he gasped for air soon after surfacing, Honrath said, and after about 15 minutes on the pool’s deck appeared to have recovered, although he was “pretty much in a daze” and “a bit out of it.”

Wardell’s mother later picked him up, and within a few days he was back in the pool.

Several players testified that they had implored the coaches as many as seven times to call 911, but the call was never made, even after Renfrow, whose office was nearby, came out to investigate.

“My coaches were right there on the deck and they were experienced water people,” Renfrow said Friday. “The boy was conscious, communicating and not in danger at that point. I felt that my coaches had handled it properly.”

Nonetheless, Renfrow said, the incident later “seemed to grow legs and have a life of its own.”

It’s unclear how the case came to the attention of authorities. Karen Schatzle, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted it, could not be reached for comment.

Mary Wardell, Sean’s mother, said she believes that a now-retired detective with the Huntington Beach Police Department learned of the incident a month later while investigating allegations that Akian had been videotaping the girls’ shower room. Though no charges were ever filed in that case, Akian was later fired because of it.

“I just appreciated that [the detective] thought it was important” enough to present to the district attorney, she said of the near-drowning.

A police spokesman declined to comment, and the retired detective could not be reached.

Mary Wardell said Friday that she has mixed feelings about the fact that the case was dismissed.

“I didn’t necessarily think it was something they needed to go to jail for,” she said of Renfrow, Akian and Pentilla -- who, according to Renfrow, has since left the district for reasons unrelated to the charges.

“I just think that they definitely made a gross lapse in judgment when they refused to call the paramedics. I think they learned from it, though, and it won’t happen again.”

In dismissing the charges, Fasel said that while there may be legitimate liability issues that deserve a court hearing, he saw no evidence of a crime. Perhaps, he said, the case should be heard in civil rather than criminal court.

Huntington Beach Union School District officials did not return calls seeking comment regarding possible disciplinary action or policy changes resulting from the incident.

Mary Wardell said she had no plans to seek further legal action.

“Sean is fine now,” she said, though the accident “traumatized him. I would never have thought, in sending my kid to water polo practice, that he could nearly drown. Thank God the other kids were there, and smart enough to react.”