Jurors hear two views of Dasen case

A jury will have to decide whether Kalispell businessman Dick Dasen Sr. was a predator who exploited desperate women or a generous man who was taken advantage of by schemers.

Opening arguments Wednesday presented Dasen both ways. He is charged with 14 counts of prostitution and related charges in a trial that is scheduled to last up to six weeks.

Deputy County Attorney Lori Adams explained the charges to the jury first, describing the women involved with Dasen.

"They were just meth addicts, desperately poor women and minors," she said. They took money from Dasen and had sex with him in a tacit exchange, she said. They spent the money "to feed themselves, to feed their children, to feed their addiction.

"The defendant made them an offer that they did not have the strength to refuse… You may not like these women and you may not like what they did," Adams said, but "without the defendant, they were not prostitutes."

Dasen's attorney George Best spoke next, countering that scenario with an opposite one.

"Dick did not take advantage of them. He did not hurt them. His goal was to help them," Best said.

"You are going to see that Mr. Dasen was duped."

Dasen has a 30-year history of charitable activities.

"He has a true, caring heart for people," Best said. Dasen's generosity provided rent, housing, food, medicine, utilities and day care in "generally every sort of charitable cause that can be done."

But, "There's no fool like an old fool," Best said, and Dasen foolishly fell for the manipulations of some of the women he assisted.

"Before it's over … you'll be able to see who had control."

Dasen is beaten and broken, Best told the jurors.

According to the prosecution, Dasen generally paid women $1,000 for a 20-minute sexual encounter. They earned more if they brought other women or girls to him or agreed to be pornographically photographed, Adams said in her opening.

Dasen is charged with sexual abuse of children for allegedly photographing two girls, ages 16 and 17, in sexual acts.

"They made it clear that they did not want the defendant to touch them," Adams said. Dasen had sex with the girls and paid them $1,000 each, she said. They were paid $8,000 during their continuing relationship with him, she said.

She explained that Dasen is charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution for paying underage girls for sex. They were a 15-year-old girl, three 16-year-old girls and a 17-year-old girl, she said. One 16-year-old girl received a check for $3,000 after having sex with Dasen, Adams said.

Dasen is charged with sexual intercourse without consent for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl. Children under 16 cannot legally consent to sex. He is also charged with promotion of prostitution for encouraging women to become prostitutes.

"Prior to meeting the defendant, they were not prostitutes," Adams said.

She gave the example of Leah Marshall, who came to the Flathead to find her father and sister and met Dasen. He put her up in a room and gave her a check to pay off all her debts.

He dangled an irresistible offer before her, Adams said - "How would you like to go to school? How would you like to have a car? How would you like to have $1,000 every week?"

Marshall was astounded at "this kind of generous, great man she thought never existed," Adams said.

And then Dasen infused his desire for sex into the relationship.

He told her, "'If you do me a favor, I'll do you a favor' and thus, Leah Marshall's life of prostitution began," Adams said.

Marshall received $51,000 from Dasen in a year, she said. Adams showed a chart with amounts of money paid to other women - some more than $35,000 in six months, one with $7,000 in one five-day span.

Dasen didn't counsel the girls on how to spend the money or how to budget it. They spent it on drugs and gambling, she said.

"Now they don't have a penny left," she said. Dasen's involvement with them was not to help them, Adams said. He was simply "someone in the business of prostitution."

Dasen's attorney said his client admits having sex with many women "to his everlasting shame, to the destruction of his family, his self-esteem" and his values.

"He was stupid and he was an adulterer," Best said. "He did not commit a crime."

In virtually every relationship, he told the women they did not have to have sex with him in order to receive his support, Best said. He had affection for them and they for him, he said.

"He was hoping to better their lives."

Within the social circles of those women, "news of a free handout grew like wildfire." Women connived to "worm their way into the free bankroll."

Some who were underage "schemed to create the knowledge in his mind that they were older than 18," Best said.

He urged the jury to regard those women skeptically when they testify.

"Virtually every one of them is prone to not telling the truth," Best said.

District Judge Stewart Stadler is presiding over the trial, heard by a panel of six women and nine men, including three alternate jurors.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com