Scandal involving sex, cash and a business leader rocks Montana town

By Blaine Harden
The Washington Post

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KALISPELL, Mont. — Until he was arrested this year in his underwear in a motel room with a nearly naked young woman who was behind in her payments to his finance company, no businessman in this town was more respected than Richard Dasen.

He had won the "Great Chief" award, the highest honor a local business leader can receive from the chamber of commerce. A nominating letter for the award described him as "the epitome of the reason we all want to live in the Kalispell area."

Dasen was an energetic force in the construction of a new hospital, a ski resort and a large hotel that established this northwest Montana town of 15,000 as a player in the convention business of the Rocky Mountain West. He was impressively energetic, too, in charitable and social causes, serving as a church elder, helping teenagers finish high school and volunteering his time to Christian Financial Counseling, which helped people manage debts.

Since his arrest in February in a sting operation at a cut-rate local motel, police have unearthed a side of Dasen's life that, while impressively energetic, is decidedly less civic-minded.

Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that he paid more than $1 million over the past decade to have sex with young women, many of whom were addicted to drugs and in debt to him, according to court documents.

Too many to count

Asked by police how many women were involved, Dasen said there had been too many to count.

He also apparently lost count, police say, of how much money he paid these women.

Investigators counting his checks — he paid by check, in amounts between $1,000 and $6,000 per encounter, sometimes as much as $130,000 a month — now estimate that Dasen spent at least $5 million, said Charles Harball, the city attorney.
 
"He pretty much single-handedly funded the methamphetamine trade here in Kalispell for a number of years," Harball said, as women used the money Dasen paid them to pay for their habits.

The flow of money to local methamphetamine users seems to have dried up since Dasen's arrest, Harball said, adding that there has been a "flood of petty crime from addicts seeking cash for their habit."

Police continue to investigate the source of Dasen's money.

"He had access to a lot of funds from a lot of different sources, and there is really no accounting for any of it," Harball said.

The state Department of Public Health and Human Services also is trying to find out what Dasen, as a court-appointed conservator, did with $500,000 that had been awarded in a product-liability settlement for the long-term care of a severely brain-damaged child.

Dasen so far has been charged with rape for allegedly paying a 15-year-old girl for sex. The age of consent in Montana is 16. He also has been charged with two felony counts of promoting prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his attorney, George Best, declined to comment on any aspect of the case.

Dasen is free on $50,000 bond and staying with his wife at their Arizona vacation home.

A trial on the rape and prostitution charges is scheduled for early next year, and law-enforcement officials say that they are continuing an investigation into any accounting and tax irregularities concerning Dasen.

Then there is the matter of Dasen's DNA, which the state crime lab says was detected on a semen-stained bedspread in Room 233 of the Kalispell Motel 6 — the room in which Darlene Wilcock, 26, was found strangled in April of last year. No one has been arrested in connection with her death.

A law-enforcement official familiar with the woman's autopsy report said that semen from two men, neither of them Dasen, was found on her body.

Trading debts for sex?

Many of the women Dasen allegedly paid for sex met him for the first time when they came to Christian Financial Counseling for help in consolidating and managing their debts. Dasen ran the nonprofit and also owns a private finance firm, Budget Finance.

Detectives have interviewed about 40 of these women, and many of them have said that Dasen "used their indebtedness to him to coerce them to have sex," Kalispell Police Chief Frank Garner said.

If Dasen was "not satisfied with the sexual services that he was receiving, it was common for [him] to arrange for repossession of vehicles that he has purchased or funded for those females, through his finance company," according to a confidential informant's statement to police that is quoted in court documents.

News of Dasen's arrest astonished many business associates, political acquaintances and fellow church members.

"Dick's dark side was done with extreme discretion," said Dean Jellison, a retired lawyer who has known Dasen for nearly 35 years. "The news was a complete and utter shock to the community."

Part of the shock derived from the respect that Dasen had earned for his volunteer work as a financial counselor. Many judges, law-enforcement officials and ministers had referred troubled young couples with debt problems to Dasen — and they credit him with having saved many marriages.

"He was incredibly benevolent," said Denise Cofer, a local activist in the Christian Coalition and a candidate in the fall election for county commissioner. She said Dasen was a supporter of conservative Christian causes, such as opposition to abortion.

"If there was a need in the community, he was there," she said.

Yet, the rumors apparently had percolated down to many working-class people, especially those with debt problems.

"When my wife and I were having some problems, a friend recommended that we go see Dasen," said Steve Southland, a warehouse manager. "But my friend knew enough to warn me not to send my wife alone."