U.S. v. Danser, IP 98-161-CR-01 T/F.
| Decision Date | 06 October 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. IP 98-161-CR-01 T/F.,IP 98-161-CR-01 T/F. |
| Citation | 110 F.Supp.2d 807 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. David Karl DANSER, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana |
Steven Debrota, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Indianapolis, IN, for Plaintiff.
David J. Colman, Attorney at Law, Bloomington, IN, for Defendant.
The Defendant, David Karl Danser (hereinafter Danser), is charged in a three count Indictment. In general terms, Count 1 charges him with causing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct, either knowing that the depiction will be transported in interstate commerce or under circumstances in which the depiction was actually transported in interstate commerce. Count 2 charges that he crossed a State line with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a person under the age of 12. In Count 3, he is alleged to have been in possession of three or more pieces of child pornography. The Defendant has pled not guilty to all of these charges. However, he does not dispute that the prosecution has proved the essential elements of Counts 1 and 3. With respect to Count 2, he does not dispute that he crossed a State line and thereafter engaged in a sexual act with a girl under 12 years of age. He does dispute whether there has been proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he crossed the State line with the intent to engage in a sexual act with the girl. He also raises the affirmative defense as to all three counts, specifically, that he was insane at the time of the events charged in the Indictment. This memorandum will discuss the facts and law which lead to the verdict in this case.1
The two critical issues in the case are whether the North Carolina trip was undertaken by Danser with the intent to engage in a sexual episode and whether at the time of the Defendant's conduct alleged in the Indictment, he was legally insane. The discussion of the facts will be divided generally into the two relevant areas.
The victim in Counts 1 and 2 (and one of the victims of Count 3) is Karen Doe (referred to as Jane Doe in the Indictment). She was born July 6, 1990. She came to live with the Danser family in August 1997. At the time, she was in the first grade. She is now nine years of age. Danser was aware that Karen Doe had previously been sexually molested by other persons before she came to live at the Danser residence.
Even before Karen Doe's arrival at the Danser house, Danser began preparing to gain a sexual advantage from her presence. In 1997, Danser purchased and installed a pinhole camera (Exhibit 26) behind a Winnie the Pooh mirror (Exhibit 27) in Karen Doe's room at the Danser residence. Jennifer Danser was aware that Danser had purchased a pinhole camera just prior to when Karen came to live with them in order to install it in a hidden location in Karen's bedroom. Danser admits that he installed the Pinhole camera behind the Winnie Pooh mirror, Exhibit 27, which was in Karen Doe's room at the Danser residence. This camera was connected to a television and VCR in Jenny and David Danser's bedroom. Exhibit 26 is the color pinhole camera which Danser used to record the activities in Karen Doe's room in this manner. Exhibit 25 is a receipt for the purchase of this pinhole camera by Danser on August 5, 1997. Danser used this camera to secretly record nude videos of Karen Doe and other minors.
Shortly after Karen Doe came to live with the Danser family, Danser began to touch Karen in her genital or pubic area and later began having more explicit sexual contact with her. This included genital-genital and oral-genital contact, masturbation and either attempted or simulated sexual intercourse. Much of this was visually documented because Danser took many nude pictures of Karen Doe and his molestations of her. These consisted of both still photographs and videotapes. According to Karen Doe, nobody else was present in the various rooms when Danser took these pictures. Danser told Karen Doe how to pose for many of these pictures, including those of her spreading her legs and displaying her pubic area. His directions to her are also documented on the videotapes, corroborating what she said about these things. A viewing of the still and video photos also discloses that Danser directed Karen Doe in various lascivious exhibitions of her genitals or pubic area. It is also evident from viewing the videotapes that no one besides Karen Doe and Danser was present during the nefarious filming. The videos and the explicit still photos of Karen Doe and the molestations were hidden away from everyone, especially Danser's wife, Jennifer Danser, in a carefully chosen hiding place at Danser's business.
Karen Doe has a detailed and accurate recollection of the molestations and she possesses a darkly precocious familiarity with sex-related terminology and activity. This is demonstrated during the videotapes and is also evident from the stipulations about her testimony. To Karen Doe, "having sex" included Danser placing the penis at the entrance to her vagina, Danser kissing and licking her vagina, and Danser asking her to lick and suck his penis.
The parties stipulated that Karen Doe would also testify that she knew Danser kept sex toys (sexual aids/devices) in his night stand drawer at this residence, that Danser asked her to use them sometimes during their sexual activities, he took photos of her with these sex toys sometimes and used these toys on her. Again, the photographic evidence confirms the accuracy of her stipulated testimony.
According to Karen Doe, prior to the North Carolina trip, these molestations that she describes as "having sex" happened in Danser and Jenny Danser's bedroom with the door closed and locked, and with the bedroom door open only if no one else was home. Yet again, the videotape evidence and a comparative still photograph of the Danser bedroom confirms her stipulated testimony about the location of these activities. Karen Doe recalled that on at least one occasion, when Karen Doe and Danser were in Danser's bedroom "having sex," Jenny Danser knocked on the door and wanted to come in. Karen Doe also recalled that on one occasion, Danser told her to get in the swimming pool when Jenny Danser knocked on the door. Jennifer Danser corroborates that on one occasion, she found Danser and Karen Doe alone in David and Jennifer Danser's bedroom with the door closed and locked.
On April 23, 1998, Karen Doe and Danser began traveling from their home in Bloomington, Indiana to Carolina Beach, North Carolina by themselves. The trip began around 6:00 in the evening, after Karen had completed school for the day. After an overnight stop in Kentucky or Tennessee, they continued on to North Carolina. Danser checked into a room at the Lighthouse Motel in Carolina Beach sometime on April 24. Danser had been to that ocean side town, and, if fact, to that very same motel, during other vacation trips to the area. During the morning of April 25, 1998, a videotape was used to produce a visual depiction of Karen Doe and Danser engaging in sexually explicit conduct while in the bathroom and on a bed inside this room at the Lighthouse Motel in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Danser checked out of this motel on April 25, 1998, and returned to Bloomington, Indiana with the videotape. That videotape, which is referenced in Count 1 of the Indictment, was transported in interstate commerce from Carolina Beach, North Carolina to Bloomington, Indiana on or about April 25, 1998. At the time the videotape was so transported back to Bloomington, Indiana from Carolina Beach, North Carolina, it contained visual depiction of Karen Doe engaging in the sexually explicit conduct described above with Danser. The scenes of the sexually explicit conduct on this videotape, a PAL 8mm, was then transferred to Exhibit 20A. Danser then destroyed the 8mm PAL videotape in Bloomington, Indiana and retained a copy of the scenes of the sexual activity in VHS format.
Jennifer Danser saw a video camera inside Danser's truck before he and Karen Doe left on the trip to North Carolina. Danser stipulated that he took a PAL 8 mm video camera on the trip to North Carolina on or about April 23, 1998. Jennifer and David Danser owned a video store in 1997 and 1998 which contained equipment that was capable of transferring video tapes in PAL 8 mm format to VHS and SVHS formats.
Karen Doe would testify that before going to sleep in North Carolina on April 24, the two engaged in sexual acts on the bed which Karen Doe had selected to sleep in for the night. There is no videotape confirmation of that activity. While Danser understands that Karen Doe would testify to this fact, he specifically denies that he engaged in sexual activity before going to sleep that evening. However, given the accuracy of her recollection and descriptions of the other sex related events, as corroborated by the visual and other physical evidence, her version of this occurrence is more credible.
Karen Doe also details that the next morning, before returning to Bloomington, Indiana, Danser videotaped the two "having sex" on the bed she slept in and videotaped the two in the bathtub "having sex" which included her sucking on Danser's penis. The corroborative proof of her account of the morning's events is irrefutably recorded on Government Exhibit 20A.
According to the Defendant's testimony, the purpose of the North Carolina trip was quite innocent. In a voice wrought with emotion, he testified that the motive behind the trip was an opportunity to show his adopted daughter the ocean, one of the wonders of nature for which he has great affection. According to him, she had led a rather deprived and backwards lifestyle until he came into her life and he was trying to make up for lost time. As it turned out,...
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