Group rewards rescuers

A national nonprofit organization that advocates using aircraft in law enforcement saluted a pair of Newport-Mesa police officers who coordinated the rescue of a Santa Ana man drowning off Newport Beach last week, authorities said Friday.

Costa Mesa pilot and police Officer Vern Hupp and Newport Beach police Officer Robert Rivers were flying the Eagle police helicopter used by local departments Oct. 3 when authorities were called to the rocks off of Cameo Shores and Brighton roads to rescue a man who fell off a rock while fishing and floated out to sea.

Hupp and Rivers flew to the area and soon located a young man floating face down in the water about 20 yards off shore. Orange County Sheriffs Harbor Patrol soon arrived, but were not immediately able to spot the man, officials said. With the help of Hupp and Rivers, sheriffs deputies soon found the man and pulled him aboard.

Authorities resuscitated the man with CPR.

AirBorne Law Enforcement Services, a national nonprofit that advocates authorities using aircraft, have called the officers’ role in the rescue “exemplary” and are calling for local recognition.

The men were not the only ones to get into the rescue act that Friday afternoon. Besides them, there were harbor patrol and paramedics who took the near-drowned man to the hospital, Newport Beach police and firefighters who were dispatched to the area where the man fell to save his relatives too.

Apparently family members had helped hoist the man’s 3-year-old nephew onto a 40-foot high rock to fish with his grandpa.

He was unable to come down, and firefighters had to rescue him hours later.

Police arrested the child’s father, Alberto Gonzalez, 24, of Santa Ana, on suspicion of child endangerment.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment charges Tuesday and was sentenced to four years’ informal probation, community service, and he was ordered to take a parenting class. The boy was said to be doing fine.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.