Injuries suffered at the hands of an RCMP officer during his arrest near Oliver may have helped keep a man out of jail.
Anthony Chester Bryant, 55, was sentenced Thursday in provincial court in Penticton to $2,500 in fines and a one-year driving prohibition after being convicted in September of having control of a vehicle while impaired, obstructing a police officer, failing to stop for police, and refusing to provide a breath sample.
In his reasons for sentence, Judge Greg Koturbash said he considered the injuries Bryant suffered to his face and wrist during his arrest on June 11, 2012, to be mitigating factors.
The Crown had asked for up to 21 days in jail, plus the fines and driving prohibition.
Bryant was arrested at gunpoint by RCMP Const. Ian McNeil while behind the wheel of a truck that was the subject of two impaired driving complaints.
In their testimony at trial, both McNeil and Bryant agreed Bryant reached under the dash to shut off the truck, since the vehicle’s ignition system didn’t work, but they disagreed about what happened next.
McNeil said he feared Bryant was reaching for a weapon, so he opened the truck door and threw Bryant to the ground. Bryant, however, said the officer punched him in the head and then threw him to the ground and kicked him several times.
Koturbash dismissed Bryant’s testimony as “self-serving.”
