RCMP officer told witness to delete video of violent Dale Culver arrest, B.C. judge finds

Dale Culver, 35, went into medical distress after being tackled to the ground and pepper-sprayed by RCMP officers on July 18, 2017.

An RCMP officer from Prince George, B.C., has been found guilty of obstruction for telling a witness to delete cellphone video following the violent 2017 arrest of Dale Culver, who died shortly after being taken into custody.

The conviction was handed down in provincial court in late July, months after prosecutors decided to stay manslaughter charges against two other officers who were directly involved in the arrest, which left Culver with blunt force trauma to his head. 

Judge Adrian Brooks found that Const. Arthur Dalman directed a bystander – Ken Moe, a 43-year-old truck driver – to delete a recording captured in the aftermath of the takedown.

Moe also testified that Dalman at one point “tried to snatch the phone” out of his hand, according to Brooks’ decision, which was posted online this month.

A confrontation ensued, during which Moe said the officer warned he could be charged if he didn’t make the video disappear.

“After telling me he was going to arrest me for obstruction, he told me that he was going to take my phone as evidence if I didn’t delete the video,” Moe told the court.

The bystander said he played the recording for officers twice so they could see what he captured – then deleted it from his phone as instructed.

The court did not hear a description of what was on the video, as Moe never had a chance to view it himself, having turned his device toward the officers as he played it for them.

Another witness, 33-year-old Kelsey Michaloski, who works at the local legion and delivers flowers, testified that she heard the RCMP telling bystanders to delete videos and pictures at the scene as well.

Judge rejects accounts of RCMP officers

The bystanders' accounts were contradicted by Dalman and his superior officer, Staff Sgt. Bayoni Cruz – who was also accused of obstruction, but was acquitted.

Neither of the men were involved in Culver's arrest. 

Both testified that they had no interest in Moe's video after viewing it, and told him so, only for Moe to then delete it of his own volition.

The court heard Cruz has been with the RCMP for 22 years, nine of which he spent responding to serious crimes. That work required specialized training, which included the seizing of cellphones when needed for evidence.

Cruz testified that he had "never heard in his career any instruction to delete videos," and would have reported such behaviour if he had, Brooks wrote.

But the judge found the suggestion that Moe spontaneously offered to delete his video – without prompting, even after apparently being told the RCMP didn't want it – difficult to believe.

"He testified that he deleted the video because Dalman directed him to. That evidence fits with the accepted facts," Brooks wrote. "I believe Moe. Dalman directed him to delete his video and Moe did."

Renewed calls for charges in arrest

Culver was arrested on the night of July 18, 2017, while officers were responding to a report of a suspicious man looking into car windows.

He was pulled off his bicycle from behind, pepper-sprayed in the face, and punched or kicked several times by officers, according to a summary of the incident from the B.C. Prosecution Service.

Culver died 29 minutes later.

Prosecutors initially approved manslaughter charges against constables Paul Ste-Marie and Jean Francois Monette, but stayed them in April – a decision that came down to conflicting pathology reports on Culver's cause of death, one of which found he likely died of a heart attack linked to long-time methamphetamine use. 

Culver was a member of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitksan Nations, and the case marked the first time officers in B.C. had been charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of an Indigenous person.

Following Dalman’s conviction, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs renewed calls for the prosecution of the officers who arrested Culver.

"First Nations people have lost faith in the justice system, and it’s time to stop the cycle," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said in a July 31 statement.

"The disproportionate injustices faced by First Nations people and communities are evident in the statistics. Who do we turn to in times of need when we must protect ourselves from so-called officers for justice?"