A Penticton motel manager plead guilty to obstruction of a police officer after getting into an altercation with a guest in February.

Carlo Pontes, 44, was ordered to pay a $750 fine as part of a joint submission by Crown counsel and defence that resulted in the charge of assault to be dropped.

RCMP were called to the Spanish Villa Motel around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 28 and spoke to the complainant who alleged Pontes had assaulted him.

While going over the circumstances in court, Crown prosecutor Kurt Froehlich said Pontes pushed past one of the police officers and resisted arrest. Once they put Pontes in handcuffs, RCMP said he became dead weight and had to be dragged to the police cruiser. Pontes refused to get in and used his feet to keep police from putting him into the back of the vehicle. Pontes made a number of derogatory comments toward the officers and it required a third officer attending to assist in getting Pontes into the RCMP car. The court heard that Pontes was under the influence of alcohol at the time.

Defence counsel Tyrone Duerr said prior to the incident with RCMP, a hotel guest had let a number of people into their room after the allowed time and were having a party. After several complaints from other guests, Pontes attempted to deal with the situation which ended up in an altercation with the guest who was having the party.

“Mr. Pontes was attempting to explain that this was trespassing because of what had gone on with the guests in the room and the police decided to arrest my client. My client was very upset about this and got quite agitated and behaved very poorly … he regrets that,” said Duerr.

Duerr said since the incident, Pontes has been taking steps address his dependency on alcohol.

“Listening to everything, I am disgusted with my actions and it’s just not who I am,” said Pontes, whose parents own the motel that he manages. “I intend to make improvement in my life anyway I can.”

Pontes also plead guilty to a separate incident that took place in June where a verbal argument with his ex-wife led to a phone call to police from her. She stated she feared for her personal safety. Pontes was arrested without incident and was handed a 12-month peace bond in court on Monday.

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