The former Prince George RCMP officer found guilty of attempting to obstruct justice received a suspended sentence and 18 months’ probation on Monday, March 2 in Prince George Provincial Court.
The Crown wanted Arthur Dalman, 33, sent to jail for six months. His lawyer sought a conditional discharge.
Judge Michael Fortino rejected both proposals. As part of the probation, he ordered Dalman to perform 150 hours of community work service by June 2027, with each hour counting as two if the work is related to restorative justice.
In July 2024, Judge Adrian Brooks found Dalman guilty of directing a witness to delete a smartphone video on July 18, 2017, after Dale Culver, a 35-year-old Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en man, was violently arrested. Culver died in police custody.
Prince George RCMP had received a call about someone on a bicycle casing vehicles on 10th Avenue between Central Street West and Commercial Crescent.
Dalman was a recent recruit to the RCMP, a 24-year-old who had been on the job for five months. Fortino accepted that Dalman had no connection to the Culver arrest and detention, but he must have known what transpired before his arrival on the scene.
Fortino said it was Dalman’s job to identify and preserve evidence from the witnesses who gathered at the scene.
“He failed to do so,” Fortino said.
Obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum of 10 years in jail, threatens the integrity of the justice system and risks undermining the rule of law that binds society together, he said.
“The offence captures those who intentionally attempt to interfere with the course of justice, regardless of whether the attempt ultimately succeeds,” Fortino said.
Fortino said Dalman’s conduct contributed to deepening mistrust between Indigenous people and the RCMP at a time when reconciliation must be a priority.
While evidence established that Dalman suffered a mental injury due to policing duties, aggravated by the proceedings after his conviction, Fortino was not satisfied the mental health impacts were connected to the pre-charge delay in the case.
“The publicity that followed his conduct, charge and prosecution was a natural and foreseeable consequence of his actions, and did not affect him beyond what would reasonably be expected,” Fortino said. “Finally, the loss of Mr. Dalman’s career as a police officer is not a mitigating factor.”
Fortino acknowledged Dalman’s career was interrupted and his family had to leave Prince George and was subject to threats, and “the court must strongly condemn vigilante behaviour to avoid giving it any legitimacy within the sentencing process.”
Ultimately, it was Dalman’s lack of experience that weighed against jail time.
“His junior status as a police officer at the time, while not reducing the gravity of the offence, tempers his moral blameworthiness to such an extent that I am satisfied it is unnecessary to impose a custodial sentence,” Fortino said.
In early 2024, the BC Prosecution Service stayed manslaughter charges against Const. Paul Ste-Marie and Const. Jean-Francois Monette and an obstruction of justice charge against Const. Clarence Alexander MacDonald.
The only other officer charged, Sgt. Bayani (Jon) Eusebio Cruz, was tried at the same time as Dalman but found not guilty of obstruction of justice.
