Sentencing in obstruction case

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

A former Oliver man who said he was handled roughly by a police officer during his arrest in 2012, was sentenced to a heavy fine Thursday in a Penticton courtroom.

Anthony Bryant, now a resident of Meadow Creek, was found guilty of impaired driving, obstructing a police officer, failing to stop and refusing to take a breath sample in September.

Judge Gregory Koturbash handed down the sentence of a fine totalling $2,500, plus the victim surcharges, and a one year driving prohibition, after hearing final submissions from crown and defence.

Crown counsel Nashina Devji asked for the fines, as well as a short jail sentence and the driving prohibition.

Her request was based on Bryant's dated but related criminal record, that included driving an improperly equipped vehicle, as well as circumstances from the incident in June of 2012.

At that time, his driving was terrible and two separate individuals called in to make complaints about his vehicle being in the opposing lane of traffic, she said.

Furthermore not hearing sirens, when the officer tried to pull him over shows a degree of impairment. He also refused to comply when the officer directed him to pull over and didn't comply when the officer had a gun out and asked him to stop resisting, Devji said.

Defence lawyer Don Skogstad described his client as being 55 and the father of three adult children.

He said his client has not driven since the incident, and now lives in Meadow Creek on the north end of Kootenay Lake and works in a mill.

He stated that Bryant was injured and that he did not injure the officer. Although he did not immediately cooperate, he did make himself available to the police, he said.

In respect to the impaired driving, he was driving an older vehicle and it is understandable it may not have been operating properly.

As a result we may never know how impaired he was, said Skogstad, who suggested fines, with sufficient time for his client to pay them off.

Speaking in his defence, Bryant said he has been dealing with this for a couple of years and did not think it would come out the way it has.

He stated he knows what happened, (that he was punched in the face by the officer). He concluded, saying, "I'm not going to sit here and beg. I have to sit here and deal with the way it is. There's nothing I can do about it."

In September, when Koturbash found Bryant guilty, he stated that he was satisfied that the crown established beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer did not use excessive force.

On Thursday, he said he did take injuries sustained by Bryant, including when he was handcuffed during the arrest, as a mitigating factor.

But his criminal record and motor vehicle record were an aggravating factor.