(MARSHALL JONES / iNFOnews.ca)
December 04, 2012 - 12:09 PM
RCMP Const. Geoff Mantler likely will take the stand in his own defense Wednesday.
On suspension without pay following his videotaped kick on Buddy Tavares Jan. 7, 2011, Mantler likely will testify in B.C. Provincial Court following completion of the Crown's case. Crown counsel Will Burrows said he plans to call two witnesses Wednesday morning and rest his case. Mantler is expected to testify in the afternoon.
Mantler is charged with assault causing bodily harm.
On Tuesday, eyewitness Jennifer Humphries, an employee at Interior Savings Credit Union on KLO Road, testified that she saw Mantler deliver a kick to Tavares' face from her vantage point on the second-floor balcony at her workplace.
"It was pretty hard," Humphries said of the kick. "I saw his head flip back. I could hear the kick. It sounded like a foot would hit a soccer ball."
Humphries said she saw Tavares collapse and land on his face which soon turned bloody.
Humphries testified that she noticed no movements that she would interpret as threatening from Tavares before the kick. She said he complied with Mantler's commands, but that he was doing so very slowly, even at gunpoint.
"If you were in that situation," defence counsel Trevor Hande asked, "would you have moved faster?"
"Yes," Humphries replied. "I would take it very seriously. Whatever you're told by an officer, that's what you do."
John Sleeper
jsleeper@infotelnews.ca
250-718-0428
News from © iNFOnews, 2012