{"id":859103,"date":"2026-08-15T14:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859103\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T14:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:18:24","slug":"teenager-pleas-guilty-to-attacking-california-sea-lion-in-viral-video-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859103\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenager pleas guilty to attacking California sea lion in viral video | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 18-year-old California man has admitted he kicked a sea lion in a video<\/a> that went viral recently \u2013 while referring to himself by the name of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor \u2013 and has pleaded guilty to a federal crime.<\/p>\n

Tyler Muehl, of San Diego\u2019s La Jolla neighborhood, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after acknowledging in court on Thursday that he violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act\u2019s prohibition on harassment of wildlife, federal prosecutors said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n

In court papers, Muehl conceded that he repeatedly kicked a protected sea lion that was peacefully sitting on a wall in La Jolla Cove near Ellen Browning Scripps Park on the night of 22 July 2026. He said he went up to the animal with his hands up as if he were readying himself to fight the sea lion and referred to himself by the name of former UFC featherweight division champion Max Holloway as he approached the creature.<\/p>\n

Muehl confessed to kicking the sea lion four times. He twice kicked the creature\u2019s face, causing it to \u201crear, flinch and immediately recoil\u201d as well as prompting it to try to flee. Muehl then chased the sea lion and kicked the animal a third time as it stumbled on the wall, prosecutors said in their statement.<\/p>\n

After Muehl continued pursuing the creature and kicked it a fourth time, the sea lion managed to escape him by getting over the sea wall and making it to an adjacent beach.<\/p>\n

A video of the brutal attack surfaced on social media days later, and Muehl agreed in court that the widely circulated footage constituted \u201ca fair and accurate recording of what occurred\u201d.<\/p>\n

Muehl was charged in a misdemeanor bill of information on Thursday and pleaded guilty at his arraignment later that same day.<\/p>\n

He was tentatively scheduled to be sentenced before the US magistrate judge Jill L Burkhardt on the morning of 20 October.<\/p>\n

Federal court minutes show Muehl could remain out of custody pending his sentencing, and he was ordered to abstain from alcohol or marijuana.<\/p>\n

In a statement after Muehl\u2019s guilty plea, the US attorney for the southern district of California<\/a>, Adam Gordon, said, \u201cFederal crime. Federal consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric Morgan of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s fisheries office of law enforcement \u2013 which investigated Muehl \u2013 said the agency \u201ctakes all violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act very seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntentionally striking or kicking a marine mammal is not only illegal \u2013 it is dangerous for the well-being of the animal,\u201d Morgan\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has emailed Muehl\u2019s listed attorney for comment.<\/p>\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s guidelines<\/a> caution people who are viewing sea lions, seals and other species covered by the Marine Mammal Protection Act to remain at least 150ft (46 meters) away from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 18-year-old California man has admitted he kicked a sea lion in a video that went viral recently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-859103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}