Australian authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of Sunny Garcia following a physical altercation involving Garcia’s son, Jeremy Flores, and local surfer Adam Clarke at the Breaka Burleigh Pro in February.
According to Garcia’s lawyer, Chris Nyst, Garcia will return to Australia to defend himself in court.”Mr. Garcia has always maintained he is not guilty of any wrongdoing in the matter,” Nyst told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Following the incident, he made himself available to police investigating the matter, and he has not sought to hide or evade the issue in any way,” continued Nyst. “No charge was laid at the time, and he subsequently returned to his home in Hawaii.
“Given today’s development Mr. Garcia intends to return to Australia in due course, and when he does he has instructed me to reveal the full facts of the incident, and its lead-up, to the court. When that happens I’m confident he will be exonerated of the charge.”
Garcia recently discussed the incident during an interview with Transworld Surf’s Chris Cote.
“The bottom line is that I’m a concerned parent more than anything, and any time you hassle someone’s family or friends, you gotta be bound to know that someone’s watching and somebody’s going to come and do something,” said Garcia. “And, you know, seeing my kid get hassled and actually slapped in the surf, I was a concerned parent, and anybody that knows me knows that I’m going to run down and put a beating on somebody, and that’s what I did.”
“There was a lot of people that understood and a lot of people that didn’t understand, and I don’t really care,” continued Garcia. “That was my kid. And anybody touches my kid, then believe me, I’m gonna fuckin’ hurt you bad. And that was my intentions. I wanted to hurt that guy bad, and I did, so it was over. He lived, you know? He’s unhurt. He lived to walk away, and I suffer the consequences for my actions.”
Garcia continued, “Shit happens. It is what it is. I don’t know. I’m Sunny Garcia. What did you guys expect?”
Aside from the impending court date, the ASP disciplined Garcia by issuing a six-month suspension from competition along with a $10,000 fine that is eligible for reduction should he choose to participate in anger management classes.
