Judge Labels Sex Offender, Accused Swindler ‘Biggest Con Man’

A Superior Court judge Wednesday called convicted sex offender Dale Normand the world’s “biggest con man” and ordered him held in County Jail for Ohio authorities, who have charged him with illegally selling securities.

Normand, 37, appeared in court to be sentenced on a misdemeanor count of having unlawful sex with a minor. The charge of illegal sex stemmed from a complaint filed earlier this year by a Michigan teen-ager, who said she was 17 when Normand, a Canadian, had sex with her on numerous occasions.

However, a plea bargain arranged by Normand’s attorney and prosecutors limited the sentence to the 42 days that Normand had already spent in custody. After the sentencing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg McClain served Normand with the Ohio warrant and Judge Andrew G. Wagner ordered him held for extradition to Ohio.

The Michigan woman was lured to San Diego by Normand, who promised her a starring role in a movie and modeling jobs. The teen-ager moved in with Normand, but the movie and modeling jobs never materialized, and she returned to Michigan.

Although he was sentenced on a single misdemeanor count, several complaints about Normand were filed with the police and in court by young women and their families. In August, 1988, an 18-year-old San Carlos woman charged that Normand had also promised her a movie role and a modeling career, and that he had sex with her.

‘Lies and Deception’

Like the Michigan teen-ager, the local woman moved in with Normand. Later she charged that Normand lied about the movie and obtained a restraining order against him. According to court documents, the San Carlos woman charged that Normand “used lies and deception to have sex with me.” She also charged him with running “a fraudulent business.” However, no other charges were brought against him in that case.

San Diego vice officers began investigating Normand in April, 1988, when they received numerous complaints from parents and young women. Police investigators were told that Normand was recruiting a bevy of young women, some as young as 16, to appear in a movie that he was supposedly producing.

On Wednesday, Judge Wagner expressed amazement at Normand’s ability to get away with the schemes he dreamed up. The judge said he was not sure whether to compare Normand with Rasputin, Svengali or Norman Vincent Peale.

“I’m inclined to think that he’s the biggest con man on the face of the earth. How he (succeeded in) this fraud is beyond me. I find his behavior incredible and the naivete of the people he surrounded himself with beyond belief,” said Wagner.

Besides sentencing him to time served, Wagner also fined Normand $750 and ordered him to take an AIDS test.

Before pronouncing sentence, Wagner mentioned letters and packets of information he received from Normand’s victim, her family and others who were demanding a stiff sentence for him. The judge sardonically mentioned a phony resume that Normand had printed with “Top Secret” and “Classified Document” stamped on it and which was sent to him.

Normand presented himself as a James Bond-type adventurer and spy to the women and parents he met and used the resume to impress people.

In the phony document, Normand said he was put in command of all Canadian intelligence operations when he was 23, and gives his spy name as “James Edington Kirker.” The resume says that the world is Normand’s “operational playground” and brags that he is one of the “West’s top operational agents, with more missions to his credit than any other single Western agent.”

Just Like James Bond

“I felt for a while that I was reading a James Bond book,” Wagner said when commenting about the written information he had received about Normand.

Normand is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court today or Friday on Ohio’s extradition request. Defense attorney Robert Grimes said Normand has waived extradition. Speaking with reporters outside, Grimes said that Normand has never been charged “with conning activities or fraud” in San Diego.

However, Ohio authorities told The Times that Normand is the subject of an investigation involving the illegal sale of securities in a scheme that defrauded investors of about $300,000.