GOLDEN — A man who for 30 years ran a large illegal-bookmaking operation that allegedly involved several high-profile figures in Denver’s sports community was sentenced Monday to six years of probation and two months of in-home detention.
Attorneys for Daniel Dinner, 60, pointed to his long-standing struggle with gambling and sex addiction, his years of enrollment in 12-step programs and his recent mental breakdown in their efforts to save him from prison time.
The courtroom was full of Dinner’s family and friends, who lauded him as a dedicated family man and a generous person.
First Judicial District Court Judge Tamara Russell said she was more swayed by Dinner’s lack of criminal history and the lack of violence involved in the gambling enterprise than Dinner’s good deeds in the community.
“It’s too easy to be generous when your pockets are being lined with illegal money,” Russell said. “When you’re not working the weekend, you can be there for your kids; you can send them to college. It’s not fair.”
Russell said she gave in-home detention — rather than 60 days in jail — for the first time in her seven years on the bench because she believed Dinner’s mental state would suffer otherwise. He spent nearly two weeks institutionalized after the .
Originally charged with running a criminal enterprise and two dozen gambling-related misdemeanors, to a less serious charge, Class 3 felony criminal mischief.
He could have faced up to 12 years in prison. Prosecutors Ben Sollars and Mark Pautler had asked the judge for four years in prison.
Dinner’s bookmaking operation was
Among his client list of prominent local figures were Steve Sander, Denver’s director of strategic marketing and a member of the Metro Denver Sports Commission’s board of directors at the time; then-Denver Post sports reporter and columnist Jim Armstrong; and then-managers of the Blake Street Tavern and Sports Column bars in Lower Downtown, according to the grand-jury indictment.
Law enforcement discovered an ill-gotten $1.2 million in Dinner’s safe. Also, he had purchased a condo in Keystone and paid cash for a $700,000 house facing Washington Park.
Dinner’s co-defendant, 38-year-old Michael Elick, similarly avoided organized-crime charges by pleading guilty to a lesser felony, Class 5 gambling by a previous offender. He received five years of probation and 100 hours of community service.
Elick had recently purchased the business from Dinner when the charges came down, but prosecutors credited him with quickly providing information to authorities and turning around his life.
In the course of the investigation, Elick’s father committed suicide.
“My son made an error in judgment,” his mother, Linda Elick, told the judge. “That decision has humbled him and brought him back to the understanding that the only thing that holds any value in this life are the things he cannot replace: his family.”
Federal authorities continue looking into both men and are in the process of seizing profits from the illicit operation. In Elick’s case, that’s just less than $75,000.
Elick’s attorney, John Tatum, told the judge he does not expect a federal indictment against his client, in part because he cooperated so completely with authorities.
Dinner’s $1.2 million and Keystone condo are in the process of being seized, according to one of his defense attorneys, William Taylor.
The Washington Park home is also in jeopardy.
Dinner is also likely to face a federal criminal indictment for tax evasion, Taylor said.
A search-warrant affidavit related to Dinner’s case alleges he reported income to the Internal Revenue Service of no more than $36,000 a year.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
