Juror: 'We did the right thing'

A juror in the Dick Dasen Sr. prostitution trial said the jury's task was "something I wouldn't wish anybody would have to do," but he was glad to be able to see the process work.

A juror in the Dick Dasen Sr. prostitution trial said the jury's task was "something I wouldn't wish anybody would have to do," but he was glad to be able to see the process work.

The jury Friday night convicted Dasen, 62, of four counts of prostitution, as well as sexual abuse of children, and promotion of prostitution. He was acquitted on five counts of prostitution, as well as sexual intercourse without consent and aggravated promotion of prostitution.

Some jurors said they're not ready yet to talk about their monthlong submersion into allegations of prostitution and drugs and the weighty decisions they had to make on charges that carry sentences of up to life in prison.

"I need some time to get used to it," one said on Monday.

"Everybody's still going through a little withdrawal," another said.

One woman's husband said "she's having a hard time with it," and probably wouldn't want to talk. Others said they just need a few days to digest their experience before talking publicly about it.

Juror Trent Olson said he found the process to be very honest, though exhausting.

"Overall, it was interesting," Olson said.

"I thought the process would follow more in order." He said he was surprised at "how they bounced around from one subject and switched and then they would come back to it."

The jury, though, was very methodical when it approached a verdict form with 13 counts. For almost 11 hours Friday, the group went through the charges one by one, rotating through them until their decisions were unanimous.

One count was easy and one was difficult and the rest were in between, according to some of the jurors who did not wish to be quoted.

The charge of sexual abuse of children was "unanimous right from the get-go," Olson said. Evidence was presented that Dasen had pictures he had taken of underage girls involved in sex acts, so that one was easy, Olson said.

Olson, however, said he was troubled that there was not a guilty verdict on the charge of sexual intercourse without consent involving a 15-year-old girl, but the

evidence just wasn't there to convince the entire jury, and in the end, it was a case of "she said, she said, he said."

Two girls had testified that Dasen engaged in sex with the underage girl even though the girls had made it clear that they wanted contact only with one another and not with him. The law told the jury that Dasen has to be presumed innocent and there wasn't evidence to overcome that presumption, Olson said.

Likewise, the jury split on nine counts of prostitution, finding Dasen guilty of four counts and innocent of five. It just came down to how much evidence there was for each charge, considered individually, the jurors said.

The jury convicted Dasen of promoting prostitution, but not of aggravated promotion of prostitution, which involves underage girls. The latter charge relied on the testimony of some of the girls with whom the jury couldn't convict Dasen of prostitution.

Olson said he didn't hold some of the girls or Dasen in very high regard.

"Some of these girls, the way they presented themselves would piss anybody off," he said.

Dasen, in Olson's words, "is a sick man," but the juror said he sympathizes with Dasen's family.

"The man can't think bad of me," Olson said. "I didn't create his trouble."

He was impressed with prosecutors Dan Guzynski and Lori Adams and defense attorney George Best.

"They did their jobs and they were great," Olson said.

District Judge Stewart Stadler "is the fairest man I have ever met," he said.

The evidence moved quickly and changed daily, Olson said. The jury was attentive and took reams of notes throughout the trial.

Jurors said they got along well after spending a month together on the case and they carried that kind of camaraderie into the jury room when they started deliberating.

Olson, who missed a month of work, said he was glad to be able to participate in the process.

"I feel we did the right thing," he said. "I can go to bed tonight and sleep."

But, he admitted, "I'm glad it's over."

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