A Prince George man narrowly avoided further jail time for kicking an RCMP officer hard enough to dislocate his knee.
Jonathan Edgar Hill, 37, was sentenced Thursday to 11 months of house arrest through a conditional sentence order after pleading guilty to assaulting a peace officer causing bodily harm.
Crown counsel had been seeking three to six months but Provincial Court Judge Michael Brecknell decided on a longer term.
The incident occurred on February 23 when police were called to a home in the city after a drunken Hill refused to leave. While in cells at the detachment, Hill began "kicking wildly" the court heard, and connected with the officer's knee, "popping" the knee cap, fracturing the femur and damaging a tendon in the process.
Hill maintained he had blacked out and does not remember what happened. But, it was noted in a pre-sentence report that he commented that the officer's knee looked no worse after the attack, leading Brecknell to question the claim.
Hill also possesses "what can only be described as a difficult and unenviable criminal record" totalling 47 convictions dating back to 2007. They include 12 for assault, one for assault causing bodily harm and one for assaulting a peace officer.
And Brecknell noted that Hill committed the act while serving probation for the count of assault causing bodily harm and shortly after he had spent three months going through a substance abuse program at Baldy Hughes.
But since then, Hill has taken steps to turn his life around, the court was told. Upon securing bail at the end of June, 4 1/2 months after the arrest, Hill spent two weeks at a healing centre in Kitwanga. Then, for the first time since 2004, he secured steady work in Prince George and has drawn a good review his employer. And he has refrained from consuming any alcohol, the court was told.
Defence counsel had argued for time served plus one year probation with a suspended sentence. Although longer than the term issued to Hill, the conditions Brecknell imposed are tougher than those Hill's lawyer recommended.
They include remaining at home when not at work, other than for two hours a day from Monday to Saturday, and for four hours on Sundays. Hill is also prohibited from being intoxicated in a public place and must issue an apology to the officer.
Hill was also issued a lifetime firearms prohibition and ordered to provide a DNA sample.
As of late-August, when Hill was being interviewed for the pre-sentence report, the officer remained off duty due to the injury. Hill's actions could potentially be a "career killer" for the officer, Brecknell commented.
If not for the steps Hill had taken since the incident, Brecknelll said he would have been facing 12 to 15 months in jail, less credit of seven months for time served following his arrest.
