Judge denies defense motions
District Judge Stewart Stadler on Wednesday denied the same motions he denied in January in the Dick Dasen Sr. prostitution case.
Dasen's attorney, George Best, of Kalispell, refiled the motions after Stadler struck them down three months ago.
Again, Stadler found no cause to dismiss 14 charges against Dasen because of a lack of speedy trial. In January, Best was granted a motion to postpone the trial saying he wasn't ready because prosecutors hadn't provided him with necessary discovery evidence.
Stadler doesn't believe that's true.
Prosecutors have no obligation to prepare the defendant's case, he said.
"The State has been diligently prosecuting this case. Defendant has demonstrated a pattern of having the trial moved, then waiting a couple months to do the discovery that was the basis for moving the trial date," Stadler found.
He also denied Best's motion to suppress statements and evidence from Dasen because Best submitted nothing in support of the motion, and so Stadler relied on his previous ruling on the same motion.
Stadler also denied Best's motion to suppress evidence police collected after serving search warrants on Dasen's home and two of his businesses. The first warrant was found to be defective and another was served. Best had argued that a forensic computer expert improperly analyzed computer hard drives from the first search. The contents of the computer were identical after the first search and second search, Stadler found.
He also denied Best's allegations that prosecutors had not provided him with discovery evidence, as required by law.
"The court is satisfied that the State has provided all discovery," Stadler wrote.
He also put in written form the order he communicated at a pre-trial hearing last week.
Then, Stadler denied Best's motion to move the trial outside of Flathead County because of pre-trial publicity.
Stadler said that he is confident a fair jury can be drawn from 450 prospective jurors that will be called for the trial, scheduled to begin April 25.