A former Prince George RCMP officer has received eighteen months probation after being found guilty of obstruction of justice in a case involving the death of an Indigenous man in the northern B.C. city in 2017.
Arthur Dalman was charged after the 2017 death of Dale Culver. The 35-year-old Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en man died in police custody 29 minutes after he was arrested, following a struggle with multiple police officers.
Dalman was not involved with the physical altercation but was one of the officers tasked with securing the scene afterward.
He was found guilty of ordering a witness to delete a video taken at the scene, under the threat of arrest.
Obstructing justice is “an objectively serious crime,” that “threatens the integrity of the justice system,” B.C. Provincial Court judge Michael Fortino said in delivering the sentence Monday, adding that the seriousness of the offence warrants a response that makes clear its impacts.
But he also said the sentence needs to reflect the impact on the offender, as well.
Fortino shared that in the time since being charged, Dalman had to leave Prince George due to threats he received in connection to the court case, impacting both his career and that of his wife.
Fortino said Dalman left the RCMP after first going off-duty in 2024 to seek support for his mental health. He officially resigned after the police force began disciplinary action against him for having lied while under oath on trial.
Dalman continued to work in public service, though, the judge said, where he received a life-saving award after putting himself in danger to help someone in a life-threatening situation along a highway. Fortino called him “a person of good character.”
Fortino said one mitigating factor in Dalman’s sentence was his junior status at the time, and said had he been a more senior officer, he “most certainly” would have faced jail time.
Fortino said the nature of Dalman’s offence was serious and that it directly impacted the trust that Culver’s family, Indigenous communities and the public at large have in RCMP.
While he heard that Dalman was not the only officer to tell bystanders to delete video, pointing at a wider systemic issue with RCMP, Fortino said Dalman “bears full responsibility for his own actions.”
More to come.
