Finance firm sues over Dasen search

Budget Finance, a company that was formerly operated by convicted Kalispell sex offender Dick Dasen Sr., has filed suit against the city of Kalispell, Police Chief Frank Garner, six individual police officers and other unnamed people.

The suit, filed in U.S. District in Missoula last week, alleges violations of civil rights as a result of a search of the business in 2004, including the right to privacy, the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to due process of law and the right to equal protection of the law as defined under the U.S. and Montana constitutions.

The lawsuit asks for a total of at least $4.5 million in damages, including at least $750,000 for the alleged violations, plus at least $750,000 each for alleged acts of negligence, negligent supervision, negligent training, outrageous conduct and trespass.

Garner said Wednesday he has not yet seen the lawsuit but believes it has no merit.

"I learned a long time ago on this job that people attempt to use civil lawsuits to try to keep us from doing our jobs or for retribution. It hasn't worked yet, in 21 years," Garner said.

Budget Finance was incorporated in 1961 and reportedly was a subsidiary of the Dasen Corp. Its officers, as of its 2005 annual report with the Montana secretary of state, are Dennis Green, Dean Jellison, Thomas Torgerson and Wendy Black. Its directors are Green, Jellison, and Susan Dasen (the wife of Dick Dasen).

Besides the city and Garner, the suit names officers Roger Nasset, Kevin McCarvel, Jim Wardensky, Chad Zimmerman, Sebastian Dobis, John Ortiz, and Jim Brennan.

On Feb. 11, 2004, officers served a search warrant on the business in Kalispell. They were investigating Dasen on prostitution charges, for which he was later convicted. Officers collected records, computers and other items at the business, at Dasen's home, and at another Dasen business office.

According to the suit, the warrant was defective because it failed to describe the items to be seized. The flaw was that the warrant referred to a supporting affidavit. The affidavit included items that police wanted to search for; the warrant itself did not.

At a hearing in March 2004 when the question of legality of the warrants was raised, officers and prosecutors told District Judge Stewart Stadler that they wanted 10 days to submit briefs on the question and did not concede the warrant was defective.

Kalispell attorney James Bartlett, who filed the lawsuit against the city, insisted that police return evidence they seized. Prosecutors agreed to return it.

Then, the suit alleges, the police-officer defendants met behind closed doors with District Judge Kitty Curtis, who signed a second search warrant intended to remedy the defect of the first.

Officers were returning evidence they had seized and then were "stepping outside the door and then re-entering the premises, with a new search warrant, without having much time elapse," the suit said.

Police would not allow people present at the business to watch the search, according to the allegation.

Budget Finance accuses officers of judge shopping, of having two warrants for the same items, and also alleges that Curtis "wholly abandoned her judicial role of being a neutral and detached magistrate." She is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit and neither are prosecutors.

Garner said Wednesday that the initial search warrant was written by a prosecutor and approved by a judge. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling later altered the way search warrants are prepared and served, he said, which made the second warrant seem like a prudent option.

In the past, the police chief has estimated that Dasen spent millions of dollars for sex, and some of the checks to women involved were written from Budget Finance.

"The problems at Budget have nothing to do with the search warrants. I'm looking forward to the opportunity for further comment," Garner said.

The city will be represented by Kalispell attorney Todd Hammer, who was retained by the city's insurance company.

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