Sex, Money and Meth Addiction

Dasen: No Link Between Sex and Money

By Hal Herring, 5-18-05

	Dick Dasen at an earlier court appearance

Dick Dasen took the witness stand in his sex-crimes trial on Tuesday and asserted that the many women he had sex with over the years were not doing it for the money. Rather, he testified, the encounters were a "pleasant experience" for all involved and entirely unrelated to the many thousands of dollars he paid to the women.

Dasen, charged with promotion of prostitution, sexual abuse and sexual intercourse without consent for allegedly luring women and underage girls into sex-for-pay relationships, presented himself as a contrite and financially broken man with an adultery and gullibility problem of epic proportions.

Guided by questions from defense attorney George Best, Dasen described coming to the Flathead Valley from Michigan in 1968 with Dave Tonjum and their families, looking for a place to make a life in the West. The two friends hunted and fished, taught classes at Flathead Community College, and looked for a business that they could buy into, eventually purchasing City Service, a fuel distributorship in Kalispell. Dasen would go on to build Kalispell’s Outlaw Inn hotel and convention center, own banks in Whitefish and Eureka, a title company, and a finance company, Budget Finance.

During some hard times in the 1970’s, Dasen said, he found himself in “deep financial trouble,� and went to a seminar designed to teach people how to manage their debts. “I applied it to my own situation, and it worked so well that I gave some seminars about it. Afterwards, people would come up and say, ‘That’s great, but the bankers won’t talk to me, so it won’t work…’ I knew the bankers, so I told the people to come in and give me their paperwork and I’d talk to the bankers for them.� To deal with the demand for those services, Dasen created Christian Financial Counseling, and he said, his secretaries handled most of the work. Best asked if he gave money to people in financial trouble at that time. “Not then,� Dasen answered. “Some during the ‘80’s.� But in 1998, Dasen said, he sold the Outlaw Inn and both banks, and had plenty of money. “Millions?� asked George Best. Dasen nodded.

“Dick, everybody wants to know your side of this,� said Best. “How did you meet the women who have testified here?�

“They came to my office,� Dasen replied.

“Did you seek them out?�

“No.�

“Dick, did you have sex with women other than your wife?�

“Yes.�

“How many?�

“I don’t know.�

Best’s questioning was designed to produce a very careful and strategic unburdening, or at least the feeling that an unburdening was taking place. Dasen remained the stalwart community leader, charismatic and plainspoken in his slight Michigan accent, even while revealing the excruciating details of what he and his defense attorney now readily refer to as the second of his “two lives.�

Although that other life of dozens of sex partners and motel meetings has been meticulously chronicled by the prosecution, Dasen’s version of it differs slightly in the details of the events, and widely in the perception of the relationships.

Asked by Best why he had given so much money, to so many different women, if it was not payment for sex, Dasen said, “I wanted them to be able to have a life where the financial part of it would not be a concern, and then they could get the other parts of it in order.�

“Did you ever pay for sexual contact?�

“No. It was a mutual thing.�

Best: “You’ve heard the prosecutors say over and over, ‘Would you have had sex with Dick Dasen if not for the money?’�

Dasen: “I always considered that it was mutual. But I know, I’d say that was probably true. People ask me if I feel like I have been a victim, and I say no. I know the situation these women are in. I have compassion for the situations they’re in.�

Best: “What was your understanding of the women’s reaction to the sexual encounters?�

Dasen: “I was always flattered. I’m shocked to hear what they are saying now…. There has been so much talk about “the deal� we had. Well, the deal was that if I ever did anything to make them uncomfortable then they should tell me. It was that I never wanted to do anything to make them feel uncomfortable.�

Best asked if, as some of the women and girls have testified, Dasen ever hurt any of them during the sexual encounters.

“Never,� Dasen replied as Best read off some names, including underage witnesses Ms. K and Ms. T. “I never left anyone with anything other than a pleasant experience.�

Later Best addressed the subject of the underage girls. “Did you ever knowingly have sex with anyone under 18?�

Dasen: “No, but I did. She told me she was 19 and that her name was…� He struggled to think of the name. Dasen has explained his difficulty remembering the names of many of the women he has been involved with by saying that he is very bad with names, but it is a very noticeable quirk. “She said her name was Gina Clevinger. Later her sister called and told me her real name and that she was sixteen. I didn’t sleep for two days.�

Dasen said that he had conversations with the underage girls that had led him to believe that they were over 18. Best asked “Did you ever have a hint that (these girls—to leave out their names) were under 18?�

Dasen: No

Best: Did you have information that they were over 18?

Dasen: Yes.

Dasen said that he had never touched either Ms. T or Ms. M, the two underage girls at Kim Niese’s house, and that he honored their agreement that he would only observe them as they conducted a lesbian scene. He brought the sex toy to the encounter, he said, only because he thought that he would be meeting with Kim Niese, who had agreed in earlier meetings that it was alright to use it with her. “I pulled it out when I sat down because it didn’t fit in my pocket. They were interested in it, and I asked them if they wanted to use it.�

Dasen said he had never used the sex toy on anyone who was not comfortable with it, and that he had had only one complaint about it, from a woman who said he had used it too long.

At one point Best asked Dasen about his finances, in the light of the previous testimony by Kalispell Police detectives that they had found over three million dollars worth of checks written over the course of five years.

“Is your money gone?� Best asked. “Yes, I’m insolvent.� Later Best asked him to clarify what that meant. Dasen replied, “Broke.�

Prosecutor Dan Guzynski wasted no time in his cross examination. You are saying that you didn’t know the women were having sex with you for money?

Dasen answered, “Yes.�

“You are saying that you didn’t know that M, T, K, and V were underage?�

“Yes.�

Under further questioning about the relation of the sex to the money, Dasen insisted that the women were interested in him because he had money, yes, but, “I was left with the impression that they wanted to have sex with me.�

Later, Dasen would say that he knew that the women would not be there except for the money. “It is related. How can I deny that if I’m helping someone, and having sex, it is related. But I am not paying for sex.�

Referring to the two underage girls at Kim Niese’s house, Guzynski asked, “Why would these two girls be doing this if they didn’t need the money?� Dasen replied, “Because they wanted to.�

“You testified that after finding out that T was sixteen years old, you couldn’t sleep for two days? …You made sure you were never in that situation again?�

Dasen replied, “Yes.�

“And yet you did it four more times?�

Dasen said that Kim Niese had lied to him and told him that the two girls at her house were over eighteen.

“But how about K? Did you ask her for ID?� Dasen replied, “She didn’t have one, but as a matter of fact, I did.�

Guzynski thought for a second, then asked, “Do you think it is a problem when a sixty year old man is asking for ID from his sex partner?’

“The whole thing was a problem,� Dasen said.

Later, Dasen would say, he knew from his experience with T, who lied to him about her name and age, that he should just write the girls a check and leave. “ I was going to do that with T and M. But frankly, I admit, a thousand times over, I have a hard time saying no when somebody wants to do something like that.�

Guzynski presented a series of astounding figures that he said Dasen paid to a list of women who posed for the photos found during the searches at Dasen’s home and businesses. Showing one photo, he asked ,�Do you know how much money you gave Tami Ingrum?� Dasen said, “No.�

“$198,000. Do you dispute that?� Dasen said no. Asked if he had sex with the women on the list, Dasen replied “All but one of them.�

But he remained steadfast that he never paid for that sex with the money that he gave them.

Dasen's testimony followed a series of defense witnesses who described an astute businessman and a kind-hearted family man and boss who had an extraordinary weakness: he could not say no to anyone in need. The testimonials were a mixture of unavoidable treacle and indisputable sincerity.

Susan Dasen said that her husband of 43 years was a calm and compassionate man, and “he has been a good husband, believe it or not.� She said that his charity work was ongoing and unending, and that his need for people to like him has caused “some sore spots� in their marriage. “I mean sometimes I would say “You are really going to give that to those people?’� She said that because she was not involved in any way in her husband’s businesses, and because he ran the family finances, as well, she had no idea that anything was amiss. “I haven’t looked at a bank statement other than my own, ever.� George Best asked if she planned to stay with her husband. “Yes, I do,� she said, “I want to work on our marriage. We’re not young anymore.� Susan and Dick Dasen have four grown children and seventeen grandchildren. Their daughter and son and a daughter-in-law have sat behind him in the spectator seats of the courtroom almost every day of the trial so far.

Dasen’s lifelong friend and business partner Dave Tonjum testified that Dasen had made him a full partner in their business ventures even though he had no money of his own to put up, and that he had purchased a house for him in their early days in Kalispell. “He is like a brother to me. I don’t like what he did…� Best interrupted, “What he did?� “To his wife and his family and that kind of thing.� Tonjum said that he was mostly retired from the businesses that they shared and he had not had as much contact with Dasen over the past five years. After Dasen’s arrest, Dasen explained to him that he had taken out over $200,000 from one of the businesses, Peak Development, and later it was discovered that the sum was actually much larger than that. But, Tonjum said, they have since resolved that matter. “Did you trust him?� prosecutor Dan Guzynski asked. “I still do,� Tonjum replied.

For Susan Swartz, a staff advocate at a crisis hotline for over seven years, Dasen was an “angel of mercy� who never hesitated to provide money to help people with rent or transportation. “He was a position of last resort for people who couldn’t get help anywhere else,� Swartz said. But under questioning from prosecutor Lori Adams, Swartz said that she had been subpoenaed to testify, and that her opinion of Dasen had changed since his arrest. “Do you still consider him an angel of mercy?� Adams asked. “No,� said Ms. Swartz.

The procession of people testifying to Dasen’s generosity included former business partner Thor Jackola, who was facing foreclosure on his home for business debts when Dasen came in and paid off $140,000 to his creditors, without ever asking for repayment of any kind.

Diane Woosley worked for Dasen as a secretary, handling the 60-70 clients of Christian Financial Counseling, the charitable service that Dasen set up to help people learn how to budget money and deal with debt. Woosley testified to the tremendous amount of help that Dasen delivered to struggling people in the Flathead Valley through the service. “I don’t remember a time when help was refused. A lot of time Dick would pay the bills out of his personal funds, and I’d ask him if he wanted me to try and get them to repay, and he never did.� When Woosley’s husband was disabled in an accident, Dasen sold them the house they had been renting from him, for what was still owed on it—a very small figure.

Two women testified that they had received large sums of money from Dasen with no request for repayment, or any suggestion of sexual involvement.

Deana Dimler-Wise, came to the courtroom of her own volition, not under subpoena, to testify that she had a sexual relationship with Dasen that she initiated. “He was always kind and helpful, and it was always my idea,� she said. “I was working him, trying to take advantage of him…It wasn’t hard to do. Dick never said no to anybody.� Dasen placed her in treatment for meth addiction, Dimler-Wise said, but she walked away after only a few days.

Following a severe beating by her then-husband, she came back to see Dasen and he helped her again. Dimler-Wise said that Dasen wanted her “to do something good with my life, that’s how I could repay him.� She said she received about $50,000 over two years. Under cross examination by Dan Guzynski, Dimler-Wise confirmed that she had told detectives that “she knew the difference between a relationship and a job, and this was a job.� But, she added, “We both had something the other person needed.�

A female witness offered testimony that two of the underage girls who testified against Dasen were recently involved in a cocaine party in Kalispell, even though both girls had testified that they were clean and sober. Another witness, Kurt Adkins, testified that he had seen Donna Duffy, who testified for the prosecution and had also claimed to be drug-free, buying methamphetamine and that he had seen witness Holli Rose, also supposedly in recovery, “quite inebriated.�

Adkins said that he was in recovery now, but had smoked meth with Duffy as recently as December. According to the Kalispell Inter Lake, Adkins was arrested for bad checks as he was leaving the courthouse following his testimony.

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