Dance firm 'betrayed' by sex offender

The director of the dance school where convicted sex offender Donald Stanfield until recently was employed is speaking out about the incident.

Stanfield, 26, arrested last month and charged with failure to register as a sex offender, subsequently was fired from the dance studio.

According to Marisa Roth — the director and owner of Northwest Ballet Company — Stanfield’s relationship with the company began in 2006.

“He started not only doing guest work with us as far as being in performances, but he started taking classes as well,” Roth said.

“He was becoming quite a talented young man in the world of dance.”

It was during that year that Stanfield was charged with raping two young girls repeatedly over the course of four years.

The following year, Roth became the second owner of the dance studio. She did not know about Stanfield’s charges, which he did not make the company aware of.

He was convicted in 2008 and received a deferred six-year sentence.

As his relationship with the ballet company continued, Stanfield began teaching his own class.

“He was able to offer my clientele something that the Northwest Ballet hadn’t had for about a year, and that was a break-dance class,” Roth said.

She went on to describe Stanfield as a reliable and trustworthy teacher.

Roth said the company did not learn of Stanfield’s rape conviction until she was contacted directly by law enforcement. The call came on a Friday afternoon and the following Monday Stanfield was fired.

Before he was arrested and fired, Stanfield had only one student, an 11-year-old, in his class. Roth said Stanfield’s class had four students at its peak.

Roth also explained that, contrary to a filing by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office, Stanfield’s class was not for students between the ages of 3 and 18.

“My studio teaches ages 3 and a half through adult,” Roth said. “I’m sure that’s where they got that.”

In response to the Stanfield case, the ballet company has instituted a policy to complete background checks on all employees and volunteers who have contact with children.

The company employs seven faculty members and has two nonpaid positions as well as other people who volunteer for specific shows or other duties.

“The company takes seriously its responsibility to provide a safe place for children to learn dance,” Roth wrote in a press release.

“The company was betrayed by Stanfield, who alone is responsible for his actions. The company was also betrayed by a system that puts sex offenders on probation, orders them to register and notify their employers, and then does nothing to enforce its orders for four years.”

She later said students, parents and co-workers were shocked and saddened to hear about the situation.

“But I’ve also been very upheld by the support because people know what I stand for and what the Northwest Ballet is,” Roth said. “Now it will probably be the safest place you can dance in the Flathead Valley.”

Stanfield was charged with failure to register as a sex offender after not updating information about his address (his address was in Polson but he was living in Kalispell), classes he was taking at Flathead Valley Community College or his employment at Northwest Ballet Company.

Even if he had reported all of the information properly, Stanfield needed to notify Roth of his sex offender status and receive approval from his supervising officer and/or his sex offender therapist to take the job.

Detective Josh Buls with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office said Stanfield never registered in Flathead County. Buls handles the registering of sex offenders throughout the county who don’t live within the city limits of Kalispell, Whitefish or Columbia Falls.

Stanfield previously was being monitored by law enforcement in Lake County, where his last registered address was located. Buls said the Sheriff’s Office and the Kalispell Police Department learned about Stanfield’s employment through an anonymous tip.

“He had been advised previously, not too long ago, that he was supposed to check into this county if he was going to get a job or go to school here,” he said.

Buls said that situations such as Stanfield’s, although not common, do occur.

“It does happen,” Buls said, “but I think it’s pretty rare that we find someone who’s a registered offender who is working with children, working in that environment without us knowing about it.”