UPDATE, APRIL 6, 3:34 P.M.: California State Parks confirmed that the naked man arrested after coming out of the San Clemente surf Tuesday morning was Jesse William Sauder, 18, of San Clemente.
And, according to district supervisor Ken Kramer, the incident was more dangerous than might be indicated in the photos and account we posted last evening (which you'll find after the jump).
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Park rangers received a call through the Orange County Sheriff's Department dispatch around 6:30 a.m. of a naked man on the beach attacking people. A female officer was the first to arrive on the scene and, according to the ranger report, the man charged her and she had to defend herself with pepper spray.
The nude man then ran into the water, so the bizarre actions witnessed by a surf photographer (read post below) may have been the disturbed fellow's attempts to remove pepper spray residue.
He remained in the water for about an hour before two park rangers and two sheriff's deputies subdued him after he came out of the water, according to Kramer, who said two officers sustained minor injuries that did not require hospitalization.
“It was potentially a very dangerous situation,” he said, adding the officers were “fortunate” nothing worse happened to them, the arrestee or bystanders, whose numbers increased as the morning's bizarre spectacle wore on.
Sauder was booked on suspicion of assault on a peace officer, obstructing and delaying arrest and being under the influence.
ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 5, 6:30 P.M.: Encinitas surf photographer Jack English shoots along the coast and around the world, but he's never encountered action quite like what he stumbled upon this morning.
To an audience of a few law enforcement types at the state beach park in San Clemente, a totally naked man waded in the ocean and intermittently banged his head against the water, English observed.
Everyone has his own swimmer's ear remedy–and yes, there are photos after the jump. This went down while you were probably eating toast, fighting freeway traffic or snoozing away: between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m.
Anyway, after playing in the water for a bit, the Un-Boardshorted One finally emerged from the surf, where California park rangers and Orange County sheriff's deputies said their hellos, wrestled him to the ground and cuffed his hands behind his back. All the while, the chap's face was pressed into the sand. Wonder if he left a snow angel?
We're still awaiting official confirmation as to who was arrested. An Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) spokesman said it's a California State Parks case and that info must come from them. Someone answering the phone at the San Clemente station said all the rangers are gone and not expected back until 8 a.m. Wednesday. I was given the number for the Doheny station where a message was left on the supervising ranger's voice mail. Love those state budget cuts!
The OCSD arrest log only includes one name all day from State Parks: Jesse William Sauder, an 18-year-old student, who was popped after a 6:35 a.m. call. He was taken to the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, where he was held in lieu of $2,500 bail. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. If I had a bail bondsman license, I could tell you the charge.
I can tell you the San Clemente Times listed a Jesse William Sauder as a 2010 San Clemente High School graduate. Congratulations!
Whoever was in the water, English noted this about him: “This man found out the hard way that you just can't skinny dip at the beach.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.