BY CALEB FUCKNOCK / August 29, 2008The Daily Herald
Daniel Dean Thompson, the owner of the now-defunct Flix Club edited movie store, was sentenced on Friday to serve 44 days in jail and 119 days with an ankle monitor.
The sentence stems from an incident in which he and an employee were accused of paying two 14-year-old girls for oral sex.
As he heard the sentence, Thompson's hands, clasped behind his back, shook violently.
In an impromptu press conference held in the courthouse hallway after Friday's hearing, Thompson, 31, said he was shocked by the judge's decision to send him to jail.
"I don't want to go to jail," he said, teary-eyed, calling the sentence "severe." "I was surprised. But I also accept the judge's decision."
Thompson said he had never before had a chance to tell his side of the story. He said his co-defendant, Isaac R. Lifferth, was never a co-owner of the Flix Club, though Lifferth claimed to be, that the store was never a front for producing porn, and that Thompson himself had never solicited anyone for sex.
"I never propositioned anyone for anything, contrary to every report. I am sorry because I failed in doing what is right," he said to reporters, his voice emotional. "I am going to jail, which is very difficult for me. If I could change what happened I would, but I can't."
Thompson then pleaded with reporters to never use his jail mug shot again. When asked why, he said because "it is a bad photo."
Thompson's attorney had asked that the entire sentence be served on an ankle monitor, foregoing any time in jail, saying his client had been with the girls for less than 60 seconds before deciding to leave because he felt what he was doing was wrong. The attorney, Mike Petro, said monitoring would allow his client to continue to have shared physical custody of his two sons and to continue to pay restitution of up to $1,000 a month.
But Judge David Mortensen of American Fork's 4th District Court said Thompson had asked the underage girls their age and that Thompson must have known he was getting into "dangerous territory."
In his press conference, Thompson said he had come to know Lifferth because "he was a boyfriend of my ex-wife's sister and he needed a job." Thompson said he hired Lifferth, who soon thereafter "began living vicariously through me. He told people he owned my cars and my company."
When he closed the company, Thompson said he left Lifferth in charge "to finish last minute business. He turned my office into his own personal private party pad."
When police searched the business, they found drugs and porn in Lifferth's desk, Thompson said. A keg of beer accompanied by a receipt for the beer in Lifferth's name was also found.
"I had no idea, but because I owned the place, it was automatically mine," Thompson said.
A search of Thompson's own house netted nothing, he said.
"I have become a recluse and my life was on hold until today," Thompson said. "People have asked me if I will bounce back from this. It will be difficult but I will try. Contrary to every news report, I genuinely love people and I have gotten a ton of support. It just happens to be from people who are not as boisterous."
Asked several times why he had become involved in the oral sex, Thompson said he would like to know himself.
"If I could answer that I would," he said. "It was a bad judgment call, not a deliberate act of malice. I found myself in a situation that within one minute I became uncomfortable with and left, and less than a minute destroys my life. ... Everyone makes mistakes. The only difference is that mine are published."
In July, Thompson pleaded no contest to reduced charges stemming from the oral sex incident. Thompson pleaded no contest to two counts of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor. The charges were reduced from unlawful sexual activity with a minor, a third-degree felony. Prosecutors also agreed to drop a misdemeanor charge of patronizing a prostitute as part of the plea deal.
On Friday, Mortensen agreed there was no evidence that Thompson knew that the girls had been paid.
In June, Thompson's co-defendant, Lifferth, was sentenced after pleading guilty to two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, one count of patronizing a prostitute and one count of possession of a controlled substance. Mortensen sentenced Lifferth to 270 days in jail and 36 months of probation.
Thompson and Lifferth were arrested in January after a 14-year-old girl told her mother that an older man paid her and a friend $20 for oral sex. According to Orem police, the two girls asked a friend if she knew anyone who would be willing to pay for sex, and the friend put them in contact with Lifferth, who paid them each for oral sex and later took them to the Flix Club store in Orem and paid them another $20 to perform oral sex on Thompson. Thompson told police that he asked the girls if they were 18, and they said yes.
When police searched the store, they also found dozens of pornographic movies, and the girls told police that Thompson told them that Flix Club was a front for producing pornography.
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