Anthony Chester Bryant, 55, was sentenced Thursday in provincial court to $2,500 in fines and a one-year driving prohibition after being convicted of having control of a vehicle while impaired, obstructing a police officer, failing to stop for police, and refusing to provide a breath sample.

Injuries suffered at the hands of an RCMP officer may have helped keep Bryant out of jail.

Judge Greg Koturbash stated he considered – the injuries Bryant suffered to his face and wrist during his arrest on June 11, 2012 on Sawmill Road – to be factors that affected sentencing.

Bryant was arrested at gunpoint by RCMP Cst. 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 the driver reached under the dash to shut off the truck, since the vehicle’s ignition system didn’t work, but both disagreed about what happened next. Cst. 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.

Bryant now lives and works in the Kootenays.

With files from Castanet