A Kelowna Mountie charged with assault against two people has pleaded not guilty on one count but has yet to decide on a plea related to a video that showed him kicking a suspect in the face.
Const. Geoff Mantler is charged with two counts of assault causing bodily harm for the highly publicized takedown of Buddy Tavares in January and the arrest of Manjit Singh Bhatti last August.
Mantler entered a not-guilty plea in relation to the Bhatti case in Kelowna provincial court on Tuesday, his lawyer Neville McDougall told ctvbc.ca.
The defence lawyer plans to argue that Mantler used reasonable force while detaining Bhatti -- "if any force, quite frankly," McDougall said.
He said he's still working through the massive collection of information connected to the Jan. 7 arrest of Tavares, and plans to enter a plea on that charge at Mantler's next court appearance on July 12.
"It's 2,000 pages. It's four binders, and I'm only on binder number two," McDougall said.
Mantler was caught on video kicking Tavares as he knelt beside his truck during the arrest. The footage shows him winding up for the kick and then knocking Tavares to the ground with the force of the blow.
When another officer rolls Tavares over, a pool of blood can be seen below his face.
Mantler has been suspended from duty since the video of the kick was posted online in January, and his pay was revoked in May.
The RCMP officer is also the subject of three internal conduct reviews connected to both arrests, as well as a third case in which a man accused Mantler of breaking his tooth, cutting his face and giving him a black eye during a mistaken arrest.
Crown prosecutors decided not to file charges against Mantler in the third case, but his superiors have condemned his behaviour in that arrest as "disgraceful."
