'Below Deck' Crew Member Charged With Child Abuse

A video editor on reality TV series Below Deck has been charged with child endangerment after an alleged incident involving his 6-year-old son.

Christopher Charkowski, 39, worked on the Bravo series for 34 episodes and was released from custody after his arrest on January 4. Below Deck is a reality series that follows the lives of crew members working aboard luxury yachts.

In court papers shared to X, formerly Twitter, California prosecutors have alleged he acted in violence towards his son, including punching him and throwing him on the couch. If convicted on the felony charge, he could face up to six years in prison.

The charges were brought to light by a person on X, named as Beks, claiming to be a friend of Charkowski's wife, Dara Faye Stransky. They are parents to four children.

Beks shared screenshots of the court papers and captioned the post, "editor for multiple shows including Below Deck Mediterranean & Jury Duty, has been charged with felony aggravated child endangerment."

She also posted a screenshot of Charkowski's arrest record by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

In her X thread, Beks also posted footage from a home camera which shows the alleged incident. Newsweek was unable to verify the footage but saw that it showed a man punching a child in a living room surrounded by two other children and two dogs.

Another video showed a man telling an older woman, who Beks identifies as Charkowski's mom, that he wants to murder his wife and then die by suicide.

Stransky responded to Beks' thread by writing: "Oh look, that's my soon to be ex husband."

Newsweek contacted Stransky via Instagram and Bravo and the LASD by email for comment.

Stransky filed for divorce from Charkowski in 2018 based on court documents obtained by Newsweek. Charkowski was also sued for child support in 2014.

Stransky ran for the U.S. House to represent California's 25th Congressional District in 2021 because she wanted to see "regular" people represented.

"I want to see more regular people representing us, not business people who swear they're not regular politicians and then they get into office—and, guess what, they're regular politicians," she told local news site The Signal.

"My kids need a future. Your kids need a future. I'm a mom whose kind of fed up watching this, and I want to try to make changes."

She regularly posts about political issues to her social media and has shared that two of her four children with Charkowski has autism.

Below Deck is no stranger to controversy and last year had to fire two colleagues over sexual assault.

The incidents occurred on Below Deck Down Under with one happening when bosun Luke Jones crawled into bed naked with stewardess Margot Sisson after a night out drinking in Cairns, Australia.

Then in a separate incident, Laura Bileskalne was seen making unwanted advances to fellow crew member Adam Kodra, who repeatedly told her "no" after she kept trying to touch him, before following him to his bunk and offering him a massage.

Producers stepped in on both occasions to prevent any harm coming to the crew members.

Correction: 1/9/24, 10:12 a.m ET. This article was updated to correctly state the number of children the couple have.