Dasen tells his side of story

The high-profile trial of Dick Dasen Sr. for prostitution-related offenses reached a crucial turn Tuesday as the defendant took the stand, acknowledged many of the facts in evidence, but disputed the prosecution's theory of the case.

Dasen admitted he had sex with a lot of women outside his marriage. He also testified that he gave money to many of the women, reportedly totaling as much as $2 million to $3 million. Whether or not the jury is convinced that those two factors are related will be what determines whether Dasen is convicted of prostitution and other sex crimes.

Dasen, 62, is a church-going Kalispell businessman and philanthropist who often met people in financial freefall through one of his businesses, Christian Financial Counseling. He was arrested in February 2004 on prostitution-related charges.

"No one would ever have dreamed" about his secret, sexual life that involved more women than he can say, Dasen admitted.

He also testified Tuesday that he was moved to help complete strangers by giving them money. He wanted "to allow them to have a life without financial concerns or worries. I just had compassion for them," he said.

He said he knew about financial worries as he nurtured his businesses in Kalispell starting in the late 1960s, including the Outlaw Inn, City Service, Peak Development and Budget Finance.

Some women he met had lost their children and their homes, he said. If he took care of their financial worries, they could "get the other aspects of their lives in order."

Did having sex with them help? asked his attorney, George Best.

"Of course not. It was a mutually agreeable thing," he said.

Dasen said he never paid anyone for sexual contact.

Best read a list of 18 names of women and girls named during the first three weeks of Dasen's trial, asking Dasen if he had had sex with them.

"Yes," Dasen responded to most. "I honestly don't know," he said about one. He denied contact with a few others, namely teenagers.

Prosecuting Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski wondered at the fact that so many women would spontaneously decide they wanted to have sex with Dasen, many within minutes of meeting him to discuss their financial problems.

"Why are they interested in you?" Guzynski asked.

"Because I had money," Dasen said. And, "I was under the impression that they wanted to have sex with me."

He said he let himself believe that he was known as "some sort of extraordinary lover."

After sexual encounters with the women, "I was flattered when I left, in almost every case. I was shocked to hear the things they're saying now," Dasen said.

Guzynski was incredulous that women Dasen had only met, and some teenage girls, would just start taking off their clothes for him.

The girls are an essential part of the trial. Dasen is charged with sexual abuse of children for taking pornographic pictures of girls who were underage. He is also charged with sexual intercourse without consent with a 15-year-old girl and aggravated promotion of prostitution, also involving underage girls.

Dasen testified that the girls lied to him about their age. Guzynski asked why, instead of taking the word of young-looking girls, Dasen didn't ask for identification to prove

they were of legal age. One of the girls had no ID, Dasen said. Then Guzynski turned it around.

"Do you think there's a problem when you're 60 years old and have to ask the girls you're having sex with for ID?"

A 16-year-old girl convincingly told him that she was 19 and gave him a fake name, Dasen said. When he found out her true age, "I couldn't sleep for two days," he testified, through tears.

"I told her I never wanted to see her again. I still helped her but it was a different type relationship then. She was like just anyone coming in (for help)."

Dasen testified that many of the witnesses in the trial lied, including some who said they knowingly traded sex for money with Dasen.

"They're not wrong; they're lying," Dasen said.

Best presented a case for the jury that Dasen is "an old fool" who was duped by scheming women who took advantage of his generosity.

Earlier Tuesday, Deana Dimler talked about the $50,000 she received from Dasen over a couple of years.

"I know the difference between a relationship and a job. It was a job," she told police when she was first interviewed.

"When I hear stuff like that, I feel like a victim," Dasen said. "Even today, I still have compassion for every person up here," he said from the witness stand.

He denied allegations he's heard from that stand during the past weeks - that he choked one woman during sex, that he hurt a teenager with a sex toy, that he didn't care that the money he gave the women fueled their drug addictions, that he encouraged women to bring him more women for sex, and that he ever paid any of them for sex.

He admitted to an affair 35 or 40 years ago, and then another who was "the first woman I had an affair with in this whole string of events." That woman, Beth Yellow, died in a car accident, he said.

Some of the other women he considered "girlfriends" and continued to help financially, even during times in which they didn't see each other.

Dasen admitted taking measures to conceal his activities from his family and colleagues, as well as sexually photographing about 17 women, and having sex with another dozen of so whose names were not part of the trial. He doesn't know how much money he paid to which women, he said.

"I sit there and listen [to testimony] and I scratch my head and wonder if I really did that," he said. He doesn't remember, for example, if he really gave $4,500 to a woman who said he wrote a check to her for that amount the time they first met.

He's made mistakes, he said, and he was on the edge of losing control when he was arrested.

"At that point, it was an absolute nightmare for me. I didn't know how to get out," he said, briefly losing his composure. "I was worried, of all things, about all the people I was helping - how they were going to survive."

Once so wealthy he reportedly doled out as much as $200,000 to one woman, Dasen now faces several lawsuits and the same financial worries he said he had tried to protect others from.

"I'm insolvent, broke," he said.

And he faces more than 350 years in prison if convicted of the crimes the jury will consider.

"Do you feel today that you've committed a crime?" Best asked.

"No," Dasen replied.

Under Best's questioning, he was a downcast, docile and contrite witness. Under Guzynski's cross-examination, he was snappier.

Guzynski questioned Best's characterization of Dasen as an old man who "can't say no" who had been duped, broken, and beaten by girls as young as 15. "You had no trouble standing up to me," Guzynski remarked.

"I can stand up to anybody," Dasen replied.

Before he testified, the jury heard from two other defense witnesses - women to whom he gave money.

One woman, Charlene Schleifer, said she never gave Dasen more than a few massages in return for his generosity. The other, Deana Dimler, said she had sex with Dasen on about 10 occasions. Dimler said she was "overwhelmed" when Dasen gave her a check for $4,500 when they first met and told her, "If you can ever repay it, great. If you can't, don't worry about it."

The money came with no obligations or implications that sex was involved, she testified.

"I think Dick was a great person. I was very grateful. He helped out me and my daughters a lot," she said.

For their second meeting, Dimler rented a room at Cavanaugh's and presented herself to him sexually, she said, beginning a series of similar liaisons. She said she received about $50,000 from Dasen over a couple of years.

Under questioning by defense attorney George Best, Dimler said she didn't believe having sex was necessary for Dasen's continued help and she wasn't having sex with him just because he was helping her.

But Dimler faltered under cross-examination by Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski. Would Dimler have had sex with Dasen if he did not hand over cash? Guzynski asked.

"Probably not," Dimler said.

She said she "was using that as leverage," that she felt she was exploiting Dasen and was "working it" to her advantage.

"I was not a victim in this," she testified.

She told Guzynski that she was aware of what Dasen liked sexually from his arrangements with other women who received money from him.

Dimler said she regarded her relationship with Dasen as "an affair."

But Guzynski reviewed with her a statement to police, in which she characterized her relationship with Dasen as a job.

"Hell, yeah. I wanted compensation for my time and I was very cold," she said in the statement.

Schleifer testified that Dasen showered her with money when she asked him for help 4 1/2 years ago.

"He offered to buy a home for me to move into… I was blown away, totally," she said. "He let me pick it out."

For three years, she lived there rent-free. Dasen bought her a car; paid for her bankruptcy; gave her money for food, clothing, and medication; sent her and her daughter on a vacation to the Oregon coast; and provided money for Christmas gifts.

"That's the kind of person that he is," Schleifer said.

She never repaid any of it, and Dasen asked for nothing, she said.

She gave him four or five massages, but had no sexual relationship with him, she said.

Dasen is expected to be back on the stand this morning. The case, held in the court of District Judge Stewart Stadler, could go to the jury before the week is out.