A man who popped the back window out of an Oliver police cruiser will have to pay back the damages.
Marlon Orlando Wright, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of mischief under $5,000 and one count of breaching recognizance on Sept. 30 in Penticton Provincial Court.
On Dec. 6, 2014 Oliver RCMP received a report of a domestic dispute at the Park Rill Inn in Oliver. Wright was intoxicated when police arrived, and eventually agreed to leave the hotel. Wright was initially arrested for assault. Police attempted to roll up the back window of the cruiser with Wright inside and he stuck his hand in the way.
“Go ahead and break my arm,” Wright told police.
On the ride back to the station, Wright wedged his feet between the window bars and the back window of the police cruiser. He was warned by officers to stop attempting to break the window or he would be pepper sprayed, to which Wright responded “go ahead (expletive) spray me, I don’t (expletive) care (expletive) shoot me.”
Police heard a pop and saw glass shards as Wright had popped the driver-side rear window out with his feet and shattered it.
While being held in the holding cells of the Oliver RCMP detachment, Wright removed small, metal clamps from a mat in his cell and scraped the window of the cell with the metal pieces. He also removed a small, metal seal from the in-cell video camera and was observed yelling and screaming obscenities at the police officers in the detachment.
Defence counsel for Wright, James Pennington, said that his client’s behaviour was the result of “foolishly mixing his medication with alcohol.”
Wright was given a suspended sentence by Judge Greg Koturbash with 12 months probation, and was ordered to pay the $442 for the cost of the window and was ordered to pay $100 for each count, for a total of $742 in fines.
Wright has no prior criminal record.
“I’m really sorry for what has happened I just really want to get my life back together,” Wright said.