Dance, 22, sentenced to life term

Deepa Bharath

A judge on Tuesday declined a former UC Irvine student’s request for

a new trial and sentenced him to life in prison calling the

22-year-old defendant’s testimony “laughable.”

Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel said he did not believe Brian

Dance’s statements that a 15-year-old girl whom he met on the

Internet and took to a UCI parking lot asked to be whipped and

humiliated.

Dance’s new attorney Stuart Faber argued that his client’s former

attorney Marlin Stapleton Jr. misguided and misrepresented him by

telling him to opt for a nonjury trial.

“Had this case been presented to a jury properly, had [Stapleton]

investigated his witnesses ... there is a strong likelihood that the

outcome may have been different,” Faber told the court.

But Fasel refused to accept Faber’s argument. He said during his

verdict that it was obvious to him that Stapleton did the best he

could for Dance.

“This case is a lawyer’s nightmare,” he said. “Here, you have a

client who confessed that everything happened. There was overwhelming

evidence. [Stapleton] was in a legal and factual box. He had an

extremely difficult decision to make.”

Stapleton himself testified on Friday for close to three hours

when he told the court that he saw no other way for his client but to

opt for a nonjury trial. He also said that Dance had never mentioned

to him that the sex was consensual. Dance did not testify during the

trial.

But on Monday, he took the stand and said that the 15-year-old

victim, who he drove from the Block at Orange to the UCI campus,

begged him to whip her and have sex with her as part of a

“humiliation” role play.

Dance had admitted several times that he had beaten the girl with

his belt, carved a swastika on her face with a knife and sexually

assaulted her.

“When I stopped whipping her she said ‘Whip me. Whip me. Is that

all you’ve got?’” Dance said.

He told the court that he obeyed the victim because she threatened

to file a complaint against him for statutory rape -- a threat which

made him angry and frustrated.

Dance said he tied her hands with duct tape to fulfill her

“bondage” fantasy. He whipped her with his belt for “several, several

minutes” on her pelvis, back, face and neck, he said. Dance,

answering the prosecutor, said he was concerned about her shedding

blood in her parent’s car.

He also told the prosecutor that he never felt attracted to the

victim and that she was “ugly.” After the episode, which lasted about

two hours, Dance forced her out of his car after threatening to bomb

her house if she told anyone that he raped her, he said.

Dance said he took money out of her wallet “just out of anger and

frustration.”

Police arrested Dance two days later when a friend of the victim,

acting as a decoy, talked to him in a chat room and lured him to the

Block at Orange again.

Judge Fasel told Faber that his client wouldn’t have stood a

chance with a jury with the testimony he gave in court Monday.

“There is no way any rational trier of fact would find your client

not guilty,” he said.

The victim, now 17 years old, stood up and made a statement about

how the incident has affected her life.

“Does he have any idea what I had to go through?” she said,

reading from a prepared speech. “Does he know how nauseating it was

to have to swallow the spit and phlegm he kept hacking into my mouth?

Or how painful it was to be whipped time after time with nothing to

relieve the excruciating sting but another strike from his belt?”

The victim said she wanted to be killed to end her suffering.

“He deserves to spend the rest of his pathetic existence in prison

till he dies,” she said. “ ... I hope everyone here can see what an

evil cruel beast he is and never have mercy on him because God knows

he didn’t have any on me.”

Dance, who also spoke, said he is “sorry for everything that

happened.”

“I’m sorry for all the insults I cast on her,” he said. “If I had

the opportunity, I’d go back and undo everything that happened that

day. Most of all, I’m sorry I ever met [the victim].”

Dance, who was dressed in a yellow jumpsuit, sat still with no

facial expression as Fasel read out the sentence.

Dance’s mother let out a cry of anguish as Fasel said Dance will

not be eligible for parole until after 25 years.

Right after the judge adjourned the court, Dance’s father, Larry

Dance, yelled out: “This is B.S. This is not right.”

His booming voice resounded on the court’s corridors as he ranted

about the unfairness of the judge’s sentence.

“My son didn’t kill no one,” he said. “There were no injuries.

There was no death. My son had no prior criminal record.”

Larry Dance said the district attorney “overcharged” his son.

“Life in prison for assault?” he asked. “A person who commits

murder gets away with 25 years in prison. Where’s the justice here?”

He said he would appeal the judge’s decision “all the way” if he

needs to.

Dance’s mother said her son is a “good and honest boy.”

“I could have accepted this if he was a gang member or something,”

she said. “He was a good student. He went to church.”

Both of Dance’s parents said they believe their son’s story.

“He just met the wrong girl and got into the wrong circumstances,”

Larry Dance said. “I’m not saying he’s not guilty of assault, but

life in prison for assault? It just doesn’t make sense. It’s wrong.”

The victim’s mother said she is happy that justice has been

served.

“I’m glad he’s been put away and it’s all over,” she said. “The

hardest part for us was to drag her through all this for this long.

She’s an innocent person.”

The victim said she agreed to help police because she “wanted him

to get caught, no matter what.”

“I didn’t want him doing this to other girls,” she said.

The victim, who recently appeared on the John Walsh Show, said she

hopes to help other girls who have gone through such horror.

“It’s something I want to do in the future,” she said. “I think I

can help them.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@ latimes.com.