The city’s parks commissioner has come to the defense of an Upper Manhattan lifeguard arrested for dunking a teen swimmer — refusing to suspend the criminally charged man and vowing he’ll soon patrol the pool again.
“All we have is an allegation — there are two different versions of what went on there. All we know for sure is the kid would not leave the pool,” Adrian Benepe told The Post yesterday.
“It’s an alleged misbehavior. If someone is resisting, it may appear something that it’s not.”
Luis Peralta, 25, was charged with a misdemeanor reckless endangerment and released on a desk-appearance ticket after the Tuesday afternoon episode at the Highbridge Pool on Amsterdam Avenue.
He is accused of dunking Ramces Silverio, 15, who had jumped back in the water after it had been cleared of swimmers for maintenance work.
“I dove in and came back up, and then he dove in, and that’s when he grabbed my head with both hands and shoved me under,” Silverio said. “I was scared. I tried to push him away, but I couldn’t.”
“When he let go, I came up, and I was gasping for air. I was scared. I went to the police after that. I said a lifeguard was trying to drown me.”
It was the fourth embarrassing lifeguard-related incident this summer. Other misbehavior included wearing headphones while on duty, guzzling beer in a lifeguard office and frolicking with a female beachgoer.
Benepe insisted his lifeguards “by and large are doing a great job. Any time you have a large group of workers, you are going to have some problems.”
Regulars at the Highbridge Pool insist the dunking was not an isolated incident. Two weeks ago, a boy was repeatedly dunked by lifeguards in the 10-foot deep end — also for not getting out of the pool, witnesses said.
“It was three lifeguards. They took turns dunking the kid without letting him come up for air,” said witness Sasha Guerrero, 15. No police report was filed.
Additional reporting by Austin Fenner & Erin Calabrese