Prison set to free Dasen Sr.

The Daily Inter Lake

Former Kalispell businessman Dick Dasen Sr. is scheduled to be released from the Montana State Prison today.

Dasen has been imprisoned since September 2005 on prostitution and other sex-crime convictions that were handed down after an 18-day trial in May 2005.

The jury convicted him on one misdemeanor and five felony sex charges. District Judge Stewart Stadler sentenced Dasen to two years without parole on one of the felony prostitution counts, plus 18 years suspended for the remaining counts.

His prison time was reduced by the 120 days he had spent in jail by the time he was sentenced.

Dasen reportedly is planning to move directly to Arizona, where the state has agreed to take over probation supervision for the 18 years of his suspended sentence.

Dasen, through his Budget Finance business, filed two lawsuits against Flathead County officials and Kalispell police officials, claiming illegal search and seizure.

He recently lost both on final appeals, when the Montana Supreme Court refused to overturn lower court rulings that both offices properly carried out their searches and confiscated evidence legally.