Stay of proceedings requested after B.C. RCMP officer's obstruction conviction

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

The lawyer for a B.C. RCMP officer convicted of obstruction for telling a witness to delete cellphone video following the violent 2017 arrest of Dale Culver has requested a stay of proceedings.

The B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed an application for the stay was filed on Aug. 16, weeks after Const. Arthur Dalman of the Prince George RCMP was found guilty of the criminal charge. 

Dalman's counsel alleged several breaches under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the officer's right to be tried within a reasonable time.

Culver died shortly after being taken into RCMP custody, triggering an immediate investigation by B.C.'s Independent Investigations Office.

The watchdog filed a report to Crown counsel nearly three years later, in May 2020, with Ron MacDonald, who was then the IIO's civilian director, blaming a lack of resources for the length of the investigation.

The BCPS approved charges against several officers nearly three years after that, in February 2023, but counts of manslaughter against two constables directly involved in the arrest were later stayed, to the dismay of Culver's loved ones.

Of the remaining officers charged with obstruction, only Dalman was convicted. In a decision handed down in July, Judge Adrian Brooks found Dalman had directed a bystander, 43-year-old truck driver Ken Moe, to delete a recording captured in the aftermath of Culver's arrest.

A hearing for Dalman's requested stay has been scheduled for April 2025. His sentencing – which was previously expected to happen this year – has been put on hold pending the outcome of that application.

Culver was a member of the Wet'suwet'en and Gitksan Nations, and Dalman's conviction prompted renewed calls from the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs to prosecute the officers involved in the arrest.