The Denver Westword Blog



Add to Technorati Favorites

Blogroll

Tango Trial

Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 05:36:18 PM

chas%20gale.jpg

On the opening day of the trial for former tango instructor Chas Gale, the judge dimmed the lights so Gale's defense lawyers could project video footage of an extremely distraught woman banging her hands on a table and screaming. Only a couple of seconds of the video played for the jury before the prosecution objected and the video was stopped.

The footage was captured after the 52-year-old woman, who had paid Gale for tango lessons, went to police and claimed that he had molested her by touching her vaginal area and putting her hand on his penis. Gale is facing two years in jail and a $5,000 fine and being added to the sex offender registry if convicted.

As the trial began Monday, the defense tried to paint the woman as an unstable man hater who has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after having spent the first eighteen years of her life being molested. The prosecution tried to portray her as a woman going through a divorce after twenty years of marriage with two kids at home who was hoping to engage in a new social scene at the hands of Gale, whom she’d hired to instruct her.

“I don’t want to have sex with you. I want to learn the tango,” the woman testified was her response to Gale’s behavior.

The Denver judge told the jury -- made up of five women and one man -- that he hopes to have testimony wrapped up on Tuesday. -- Luke Turf

2 Comments:

Yaakov says:

Cases like this are hard to prove and even hard to defend against...because it is one person's word against another. The article does not say if the Gale was ever accused by any other woman while teacher or in any other place. It would interesting to find out what she was screaming about or even why the prosecution objected. Finally, Gale has an uphill battle...the jury made up of 5 women and one guy?! What in the world, Gale's defense did not object. Women overall, tend to let their emotions overrule their rational thinking process. The prosecution will play on this and I am afraid Gale(guity or no) will be found guilty and this will not be based on evidence...just raw emotion,

jbilious says:

Yaakov, actually women on juries tend to be harder on other women in cases like these than men do - it doesn't make sense, but it's true - they tend to think the woman must have asked for it somehow. Anyway, the defense lawyers choose the jury too. And previous news stories mention that the accused had a prior run-in as a teacher involving a different woman less than eight months before, which was plea-bargained to a lesser charge.

Post a comment

Comments may not show up immediately after submission. Please wait a minute after posting a comment for it to appear.




Westword Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff