The former superintendent of the Prince George RCMP testified Tuesday, April 29 in Prince George Provincial Court that he was shocked to learn that Const. Arthur Dalman was facing a charge of deleting video evidence.
“So it was quite surprising to me at that point, because I had never heard any intonation that that may occur,” Shaun Wright testified.
Last July, Judge Adrian Brooks found Dalman guilty of directing a witness to delete a smartphone video the night of the violent July 18, 2017 arrest of Dale Culver. The 35-year-old Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en man died in Prince George RCMP custody.
Dalman’s sentencing for obstruction of justice was delayed indefinitely so his lawyers could apply for a stay of proceedings on the grounds that his constitutional rights to a timely and fair trial were breached.
Wright admitted he did not start a code of conduct investigation after he learned Dalman was being recommended for charges almost five years ago. He said he needed an evidentiary basis to mandate such an investigation.
“I made requests to the (Independent Investigations Office) for disclosure with regards to information that would relate to that allegation,” Wright said in court.
Initially, he said, the answer “was an outright no.” But, after a month, in July 2020, he received some limited disclosure from the IIO, but had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
“Essentially, it was a rehash of information that had already been disclosed in public media releases and then, in very general terms, that the IIO had obtained witness statements that some individuals had interacted with members with regard to video recordings,” Wright said.
Wright said he drafted a decision document regarding all five accused members, regarding whether to initiate code of conduct investigations.
“My analysis was that no code of conduct investigation was warranted at that time.”
Earlier, Wright said that if he became aware of information that one of his members contravened the code of conduct, it would trigger him to initiate an investigation of that member for potential discreditable conduct.
Wright retired last August after five years in charge of the Prince George detachment.
In 2020, the IIO’s chief civilian director, Ronald MacDonald, found reasonable grounds to believe that two officers committed excessive force offences against Culver and three others committed obstruction of justice.
BC Prosecution Service announced charges in 2023. But, in early 2024, it 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 and found not guilty of obstruction of justice.
The case was to continued Wednesday.
