DANCE TEACHER SENTENCED IN TANGO TOUCHING CASE!!!

[Daanyeer]

By Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News
Published September 26, 2008 at 11:06 a.m.

Tango instructor Charles Gale has received a suspended one-year jail sentence and nine months probation for misdemeanor assault in a case in which he was charged with sexually touching a dance student.

Defense attorney Iris Eytan said Gale, 55, pleaded guilty to a charge that does not involve a sexual offense and the disposition does not identify him as a sex offender.

His probation sentence runs concurrently with a probation sentence for a municipal code conviction for indecent exposure.

The woman who pressed charges in the tango case did not appear at the sentencing hearing in Denver County Court.

Gale was convicted in April of unlawful sexual contact for improperly touching the woman during a dance lesson at The Tango Club in the 3600 block of Osage Street.

But, after several hearings, prosecutors agreed to a defense motion for a new trial because garbled taped proceedings of the trial and jury selection were inadequate to present as a court record to appeal his conviction.

Further negotiations resulted in his guilty plea Sept. 4.

Prosecutor Shelley Becker said the victim is disappointed that malfunctioning recording equipment led to his plea to a lesser charge after she cooperated in the prosecution and testified during the trial in which he was convicted.

Gale did not speak at the sentencing hearing.

Eytan contended that his touches were appropriate and necessary to communicate the tango moves.

She said he pleaded guilty to avoid the time and expense of a second trial and to put the case behind him.

"There is a disagreement between him and the victim over what happened in the tango lesson," she said.