Final Outcome of Dually Case in SD

[Twister Frost]

Fort Pierre man loses Independence Day as part of rodeo horse theft sentence
The Associated Press | Posted: Thursday, May 27, 2010 8:00 am | (0) Comments
PIERRE -- A Fort Pierre man will spend the Fourth of July holiday during each of the next three years in jail for mistreating a rodeo barrel-racing horse during last year's July Fourth celebration.
Magistrate Judge Mark Smith ordered 23-year-old Flint Dahl to serve five days behind bars over the holiday each year.
Dahl pleaded guilty to inhumane treatment of an animal under a plea agreement with prosecutors that included misdemeanor charges from three other cases. He initially had also faced a felony grand theft charge in the horse case.
Dahl also agreed to pay $25,000 in restitution to horse owner Wendy Halweg for Dually's injuries. Halweg in return agreed not to sue Dahl. But she says Dually will never compete again.

[Twister Frost]

Story From Capjournal.com---Pierre, SD---lots of comments on this thus far

Sentences issued in Dahl cases
By David Montgomery
Capital Journal staff
Published/Last Modified on Thursday, May 27, 2010 - 12:46:02 am CDT

FORT PIERRE — Wendy Halweg won’t forget the night of July 4, 2009, when her horse was seriously injured after a Fort Pierre man rode off on its back.

Now that Fort Pierre man won’t soon forget July 4, either.

Flint Dahl, 23, will spend the next three Fourth of July holidays in jail as part of a creative sentence handed down by Magistrate Judge Mark Smith.

“You’re going to serve five days in jail consecutively starting at 9 o’clock in the morning on the Fourth of July 2010, 2011 and 2012,” Smith said. “You’ll remember why you’re there.”

Dahl was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to four misdemeanors in a plea agreement with prosecutor Tom P. Maher.

As part of the deal Maher dropped a felony grand theft charge and six other misdemeanors.

In total, Dahl was sentenced to 570 days in jail. He received credit for 28 days he spent behind bars after violating his bond agreement in November and 32 days he spent receiving inpatient alcohol treatment in Yankton.

In addition to the 15 days in jail he will serve over the next three years, Dahl has 495 days in jail suspended. If he breaks the law during the next three years — when he’ll be on unsupervised probation — Smith said he wouldn’t hesitate to toss him back behind bars.

He also agreed to pay $25,000 restitution to Halweg. In return, Halweg agreed not to sue Dahl for damages to the horse.

Dahl’s attorney Patrick Duffy said Dahl had handed over the restitution money and Halweg would have access to it Monday.

Dahl will continue to take twice-daily blood alcohol level tests until Aug. 25 and has to complete his alcohol treatment. He also has to complete 100 hours of community service by Nov. 24.

The charges arose from four separate cases, the most serious being the Fourth of July rodeo horse incident. Dahl pled guilty to inhumane treatment of an animal in that case and avoided the grand theft charge.

For an Aug. 2009 confrontation with a sheriff’s deputy, Dahl pled guilty to disorderly conduct, a Class 2 misdemeanor. Dropped were charges of threatening and obstructing a law enforcement officer.

From a Sept. 2009 hit-and-run accident, Dahl pled guilty to reckless driving, a Class 1 misdemeanor. He avoided charges of hit-and-run property damage and failure to report an accident.

Dahl also admitted to ingesting marijuana, a Class 1 misdemeanor, stemming from a drug test taken after a Nov. 2009 traffic stop. Maher dropped charges from the same incident of driving a commercial vehicle under the influence and lacking a commercial driver’s license.

Maher, Duffy and Halweg all said they are satisfied with Smith’s sentence.

“I know if it was me or my children, if I had to give up a week for the next three years on the Fourth of July week, it would give me cause to think about why am I here and what did I do,” Maher said. “Within the sentence that was something I thought was tailor-designed for this case.”

Duffy urged Smith to give Dahl a suspended sentence, which would leave open the possibility of Dahl’s record being expunged in the future. Dahl, Duffy argued, had already been heavily punished in the court of public opinion.

“I can think of few people that I know who have been more terribly and recklessly savaged in the press than my client Flint Dahl,” Duffy said. “No matter what we do here today, in 20 years, somebody’s going to be able to tap into (Google) and read everything every crazy cowboy who didn’t know what he was talking about had to say about this.”

Smith rejected that request, saying justice required a stiffer sentence.

When talking about the horse incident, Dahl and Duffy defended Dahl’s conduct.

“As far as I know I didn’t inhumanely treat an animal. I just didn’t tie it up properly,” Dahl told Smith.

Duffy said he believes Dahl could have beaten the charges related to the horse incident if the case had gone to trial, but admitted to the inhumane treatment charge simply to avoid the chance of being convicted of a felony.

Maher argued Dahl’s crime was not so much tying up a horse poorly but continuing to ride it after it was injured.

“Here’s an animal that’s obviously injured — he continued to ride it,” Maher said.

Halweg’s horse, named Dually, suffered significant injuries in the incident and is still lame in its left-front leg, Halweg said.

“Flint, I want you to understand what this has done to us (Dually and I) physically and emotionally,” Halweg wrote in a statement Assistant Attorney General Bridget Mayer read to the court. “You’ve destroyed what has taken us years to build. Dually and I are teammates, and will continue to be, but you’ve taken us from competitors to patient and caregiver.”

The $25,000 in restitution won’t cover all her costs as a result of the incident, Halweg said.

“It’ll cover some bills, is what it will do,” she said.

Maher said the Dually incident inspired more public passion than any case he’s dealt with.

“I heard and I saw those comments about how what one person does would somehow be reflected on the whole community — the sense that Fort Pierre’s not safe,” Maher said. “Frankly every community has risks. Every community has some bad apples. I thought it was just a bunch of nonsense. Things had gotten really just quite out of hand and taken probably to an exaggerated degree because an animal had been hurt.”

But Maher said he understands the passion.

“What do you have invested in a child? It’s probably not much different than that, in terms of everyday training on this horse,” he said. “That was unique and something that certainly made it different than, say, a vehicle that had been taken and gone on a joyride and run into a post or something.”

Dahl, Duffy and Dahl’s second attorney, Bernard Duffy, argued his spate of four criminal incidents in a four-month period were due to an alcohol problem that is now under control.

“I know what I did was wrong,” Dahl said. “It was all alcohol involved, all the trouble I got in. I’ve been sober since the day Officer (Mike) Rothschadl arrested me and sent me to jail (in November).”

“(Dahl) pursued me and insisted that he be sent somewhere for treatment,” Bernard Duffy said. “I just don’t think, your honor, that you’re ever going to see Flint back in the courtroom again.”

Maher and Halweg both said they hope Dahl’s sentence deters future crime.

“We want to put the word out,” Maher said. “If it is fairly well known that it’s a wine-drinking crazy day Fourth of July in Fort Pierre, that’s not okay. Maybe there should be some amount of deterrence for anyone who would think that it would be okay to do any sort of (criminal) behavior.”

But Maher said it’s too early to say if the sentence will keep Dahl on the straight and narrow.

“Whether this will be enough to correct Flint so he can stay out of the court system, only time will tell that,” Maher said.

[Justin]

[Faster horses]

Thanks for the update, Twister Frost.

Most of those posting comments thought the same thing, Justin, as did
I.

Here are some of the comments under the story:

" How can you plead guilty to hurting the animal and NOT BE GUILTY of Grand Theft? The State Attorney is a JOKE and hopefully, the GOOD people of SD will remember this when he is up for election. Additionally, I do not believe for ONE minute that he has been rehabilitated with his short stint in "rehab". To the people of Ft Pierre, I certainly hope your relative is not the target of his drunken driving when he returns to the same old bad habits. Good Luck on that! "

Unbelieveable wrote on May 26, 2010 5:21 PM:

" What a friggin JOKE! Dahl got slapped on the wrist. I think frontier justice needs to come back!! "



citizen wrote on May 26, 2010 5:02 PM:

" I hope this big spoiled baby was given a no drink rule, curfew, and arrest on site
for violation clause in his sentence.
Not surprised by the result as most people knew the prosecutor was pretty lame on this. Had it not been who it was there would have been a felony conviction. At least the rodeo livestock will be safe for 3 years, to bad the people won't be. "



Stunned wrote on May 26, 2010 4:55 PM:

" Wow, that's it? This guy got off easy. "



dissappointed wrote on May 26, 2010 5:30 PM:

" poor kid cant go drinkin with friday or light off firecrackers for 3 years....they really stuck it to him! "



jerr wrote on May 26, 2010 5:23 PM:

" Boy, did you people get handed a bill of goods. 15 days jail time, almost makes me wanna hold up banks in Ft. Pierre, SD. I'm proud the be FROM there. "

[Dylan Biggs]

FH I am not familiar with the story. What did he do to the horse?

[Faster horses]

Dylan, it would be more like what DIDN'T he do.
I did a search and this letter was posted pretty much telling
the story. There is a lot of discussion under "Disgusting" in ranch talk. This happend July 4, 2009. A lot of people were up in arms about it,
and rightfully so.

Hi everyone, need your prayers for Wendy and her horse.
She was rodeoing this 4th was at Ft. Pierre, done with the rodeo and fireworks were going off.
Put Dully in her trailer, got up about midnight, put him in the arena as all yards were taken, saw young people partying but didn't think anything of it, got up at 6am he was gone. Terrified went looking for him along with many others, seems the partiers had rode him down the main street so hard ripping his shoes off. Tied him to a tree roped his legs, beat him took his front and back legs with ropes an stretched him out he fell to the ground, tied his legs as you would a calf and roped and beat him, he is cut all over burned his legs, the dad of the one kid hid him at his place another kid found him told her to get the sheriff to go there not to go alone, i am sure they were going to destroy him. They brought him to her his head fell into her arms. She rushed him to vet his legs were swelling an after washing him off found it to be even worse. Today his legs broke open and can see the tendons, if the tendon stays on the bone and if they can keep infection out. He may heal but I don't think he will be the same from something so terrible.She is beside herself. There is more but this is enough for you to know the jest of it all. We need your prayers Can not believe anyone would do such a thing, and the Dad had guts enough to tell the sheriff he wanted Wendys phone no. he had deep pockets, he makes rough stock saddles at Ft. Pierre.seems to think he is above the law of any kind. Don't they hang horse thief's in SD???

And Dave calls himself a cowboy.
I hope he never sells another saddle in his life because of this.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I was looking, I read down through some of the posts. Kola made this
remark...and it doesn't look like she was too far wrong. Disgusting!

"You and I both know these kids will walk scot-free."

[Big Muddy rancher]

I've been following this case all along and rereading this letter still makes my blood boil.

[Faster horses]

You and me both.
That lowlife didn't get nearly enough punishment, IMO.

[highlonesome]

I am originally from south of pierre and do know who the Dahls are and I do believe they think they are above the law. Flint should've gotten way more for this than what he did. Ft Pierre is kinda a drunken sh*thole of a little town anyway and then someone goes and does something like this, it is so bad that it almost makes everyone else feel ashamed! Whatever happened to the good ole boys that wouldve caught wind of this little prank and beat the tar outta this kid and his buddies! Hopefully what goes around comes around....maybe someday he'll get his! Sure is a SHAME!!
I have also included the webpage for others who are not familiar with the story.
http://www.justicefordually.net/

[Dylan Biggs]

Brutal, what a stupid sick bastard.

After reading all the trouble he has been in it sounds like he got off easy too me.

The part that really p***** me off is the following,
"Dahl, Duffy and Dahl’s second attorney, Bernard Duffy, argued his spate of four criminal incidents in a four-month period were due to an alcohol problem that is now under control.", unless some one held a gun to his head and forced him to consume large quantities of alcohol against his will.

Some one should snare the gutless buggar and and give him some of his own medicine oh, but that would be inhumane.

[TXTibbs]

[highlonesome]

haha....sorry Tibbs, I meant no offense, but since you did, you know what I am talking about My family still does much business in Pierre....closest big town I guess ;)