There will be no jail time for the wife of a longtime Wellington OPP officer, after she pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in the investigation into sexual assault allegations against Sgt. Mike Dolderman.
Brenda Dolderman was sentenced in a Guelph court last week to three months of house arrest and 12 months probation.
According to an agreed statement of facts, on Feb. 4, 2020, Brenda received recordings of recent conversations at the Rockwood OPP detachment from a colleague of her husband, a 21-year veteran of the force.
Details of those conversations are not known, but came shortly after the allegations were made. The province's Special Investigations Unit invoked its mandate and Mike Dolderman was suspended from active duty.
His charges are still before the court.
The SIU returned the investigation to the OPP in early February and has had no further involvement in the case.
After receiving the recordings, Brenda created an account on an online website and paid to have those conversations transcribed.
She later activated 18 telephone numbers and seven email addresses.
The statement of fact continues on by saying Brenda used those numbers to send "numerous text messages to the personal cell phones" of officers who made the accusations and others interviewed in the investigation, and also sent emails.
In those messages, Brenda encouraged them "not to lie and requested that they help Sgt. Dolderman."
"She also made various direct and indirect threats to some of the recipients as she believed that some of them had been colluding," the court document reads.
More specifically, the court heard Brenda used quotes from the transcribed private conversation, and threatened to disclose its contents.
"Ms. Dolderman did not identify herself in any of the texts or emails in question," the statement said, adding signatures were aliases including "Survivors of False Allegations Support Program (SOFA)."
After "significant concern" was expressed by recipients of the messages, a criminal investigation was launched to identify the person behind them.
Seven letters were also mailed to the Rockwood OPP detachment in March and April 2020 from various return addresses in Guelph, Elora and Fergus, and all eventually led to a search warrant being executed at the Dolderman home in Elora in late April.
During the search, Brenda was seen carrying a blue box, which was moved around, and when asked about it by officers, she said it "contained her personal items and that police did not need to have it."
"Ms. Dolderman hid the blue box from police for about 20 minutes and once police discovered items in the box that had been listed in the search warrant, Ms. Dolderman was arrested," the statement reads.
She told OPP officers her husband and his friend didn't know anything about the box, and the transcript was her "stupid idea."
The identities of the officers involved are protected under a publication ban.
As part of her house arrest, Brenda is able to leave her home for things like medical appointments and shopping.
After completing the three months, her year-long probation order includes counselling as mandated by her probation supervisor. She must also complete 100 hours of community service in the first 10 months.
Other charges against her, including extortion and intimidation of a justice system participant, were withdrawn.
Mike Dolderman was arrested in April 2020. He is expected to be back in a Guelph courtroom March 16.
None of the allegations against him have been proven in court.
