A charge against one of the Prince George RCMP officers involved in the 2017 death of Indigenous man Dale Culver has been dropped.
The BC Prosecution Service tells CityNews proceedings were stayed on May 10, 2024, in the trial against Const. Clarence MacDonald, who had been facing a count of obstruction of justice.
“The BCPS will not be commenting on the reasons for this decision at this time; however, we will release a Clear Statement at the conclusion of the proceedings against Cst. Arthur Dalman and Cst. Bayani Eusebio Cruz,” the BCPS said in an email Wednesday.
The BCPS tells us the trial for Dalman and Cruz is scheduled to begin on June 10.
This comes six weeks after charges were dropped against two other officers who were also involved in Culver’s death. Const. Paul Ste-Marie and Const. Jean Francois Monette had been charged with manslaughter after the Independent Investigations Office of BC found there were reasonable grounds to believe the officers may have committed offences.
“During preparation for the preliminary inquiry ad hoc Crown Counsel was unable to resolve questions about the evidence of cause of death with the pathologist. A decision was made to seek an independent opinion from another pathologist,” the BCPS said in April.
“The reviewing pathologist found the cause of death to be acute and chronic adverse effects of methamphetamine following a struggle. The mechanism of death was sudden cardiac (arrhythmic) death.”
The BCPS explained the secondary pathology report “did not confirm the findings of the original pathologist.”
“The pathologist opined that Mr. Culver died from ‘abundant fibrin microthrombi [very small blood clots] throughout the pulmonary vasculature, etiology (cause) unknown.’”
The secondary pathologist was also unable to confirm that Culver had sustained a “mild traumatic brain injury,” the BCPS shared, and instead found an “injury to his scalp, but not a brain injury.”
The second pathologist explained, “An Australian study of methamphetamine-related deaths found that contemporaneous strenuous activity occurred in 12.9% of cases. Mr. Culver’s struggle with the police can be characterized as strenuous activity. Therefore, on a medical basis, the struggle with the police likely exacerbated the physiological effects of the acute and chronic adverse effects of methamphetamine.”
Thirty-five-year-old Culver was a member of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Nations. The IIO said in 2017 that police had received reports that a man was “casing vehicles” in a part of Prince George.
When the man was found, the IIO says Mounties tried to take him into custody, at which point “a struggle ensued and they used OC (pepper) spray.”
Culver was placed in a police vehicle, where he “appeared to be having trouble breathing,” the IIO explained.
“Police say once the ambulance arrived, the man was taken out of the police vehicle and collapsed. He was pronounced deceased in hospital shortly after midnight.”
The BCPS shared in April that constables Ste-Marie and Monette’s use of force against Culver was “justified” under the framework of Section 25 of the Criminal Code.