CLAY COUNTY, Mo. -- A police officer was charged after a fight at a Northland bar.

Prosecutors with the Clay County District Attorney's Office charged Kansas City police Officer Cole Mills with assault.

Witnesses said they saw the off-duty officer from East Patrol repeatedly kick a 30-year-old man while he was on the ground outside Boomer's Bar and Grill on North Oak Trafficway on April 13.

Gladstone police responded to the fight and had to use pepper spray to break it up, according to police reports. The victim was taken to North Kansas City Hospital and Mills was given a ticket at the scene.

The police report said the victim was "unconscious at the scene and was bleeding from the sides of his head."

While the ticket Mills was issued states that Mills did "intentionally inflict bodily injury," it goes on to say it only caused "redness and pain to his face and head."

But the victim spent several days in the hospital where, according to family members, he was unable to speak with investigating officers because of his injuries.

Two weeks later, Clay County filed charges against Mills.

On the same day, faced with charges in both city and county court, Mills pleaded guilty to the lesser city citation. The county was then forced to drop its charges. It would have been double jeopardy.

But in what legal experts have called an unusual move, Mills appealed his guilty plea the same day he made it.

This allowed Clay County prosecutors to refile the assault charges on Wednesday.