Dennis Oetting,
friend of David Owen who was the former close campaign advisor of Dole.
Interviewed May 1, 1996
FL: Describe your relationship with Dave Owen. How long you've known him. What
kind of guy he is.
OETTING:
We've known each other since the fifth grade. David's a very
interesting guy. He's kind of a shy, quiet guy. At the time all of this was
happening to him, he had been a former state senator, he had been a former
lieutenant governor. In our communities he had been president of two different
banks. Dave had a lot of real estate interests and really was someone who was
something of a mover and shaker in our particular county. And a great many
people knew him and he was civicly involved in a great many things besides his
political activities. So when it initially hit him that The Kansas City Star was starting to run things, and the local TV stations were starting to
use his name and all of the implications that were there. That was a pretty
devastating blow to him. Also to his family. And his wife, and he has three
daughters. And one has to, if you're in that position obviously, be
concerned, "What are my kids thinking about me?"
FL: Describe Dave's relationship with Senator Dole....
OETTING:
Well, I think it goes back as far as 1974. It's the type of relationship
that David, I think, unquestionably was part of Dole's inner circle and, I
think, something of a trusted advisor. And a relationship that was more than
just two people that were in something for each other, because Dave's daughter
worked in Dole's office I think through some summers while she was going to
college. Senator Dole obviously was aware of Dave's children and they
literally were growing up within this time frame. And so when this came about
that it was pretty obvious that Senator Dole just dropped Dave like a bad
habit, I think he was really shocked. I don't believe he could believe that
after twenty years that he would be treated that way. I think in that kind of
relationship there has to be loyalty on both sides of the coin.
Now I feel that David felt that somehow or another it was kind of an honor
thing going here. And I feel that he feels that Dole didn't live up to his end
of the bargain. Because in my opinion he could have obviously changed a great
many things that happened to Dave Owen just by saying to the press, "I've known
Dave Owen for twenty years and he has integrity and he's one of my closest
political advisors and I'm sure this is nothing but a lot to do about
politics." But he didn't do that. So obviously Owen's attitude about
friendship was not the same as Senator Dole's.
FL: Your perspective as a friend, watching all this.
OETTING:
Dave Owen plays hardball politics. So I don't think he was surprised that he
could be on the receiving end of somebody throwing inside pitches, or
knock-down pitches for that matter. But I think he was surprised that it
seemed at a certain point to kind of have a life of its own. There seemed to
be a period of time when stories were churned. It wouldn't be anything new. If
you were a friend of his and you read what it had said, it was a rehash of what
had been said ten days earlier. But it almost seemed to be an effort to keep
Owen's name in the paper. And I think he was surprised at that. And then
obviously stated happening to him that he didn't expect. There were people all
around the state, Owen, when he ran for governor he absolutely campaigned in
every county in the state and he knows a great many people politically
connected. Well, pretty soon those people didn't speak to him when he went to a
grouping. If he made phone calls, didn't return the phone calls. It was
pretty obvious that they decided the best thing to do was to not be associated
with Dave Owen. I think then it also started happening to him concerning the
supposed business friends he had. Because in our conversations David said,
"After three years you find out who your real friends really are." And there
are a great many people that just apparently took the posture "it's easier not
to associate with him supposedly then I won't have a problem if he has a
problem."
FL: What has he said to you about the press conference where Dole did not
stand up for him and then never called him.
OETTING:
I think Dave, until they slammed the gates on the prison door, I think that he
thought that Bob Dole would step forward and say, "Hey, wait a minute. I know
this guy. I've known him for twenty years." And the fact that he just
totally abandoned Dave. To this day he's never telephoned the man. And I
think Dave held Bob Dole as kind of the epitome of the pull your boot straps
up, the best possible things about the Midwestern work ethic. All of the
things that everybody knows about Bob Dole. And then in a personal experience
that has literally changed Dave's life, Dole didn't meet Dave's expectations as
what a friend would do for you. That's got to hurt. And again, David's not
[about] to dwell on something like that, but I believe 'cause we have talked about
it, he almost felt that at the last minute somehow there would be some sort of
a reprieve because that he believed that Senator Dole could have helped and he
didn't.
FL: What kind of questions does that raise for you? What kind of a reflection
is that on Bob Dole?
OETTING:
Well, personally, you don't have to sign contracts with me either. My
handshake's my word. I don't abandon my friends. I can't think good of Bob
Dole because of what he did. Dave Owen's my best friend and he let him down.
I don't let my friends down. So I have that one instance, I don't know, Bob
Dole wouldn't know me from a load of coal. But the way I know Bob Dole is
through Dave Owen. It's not the way I deal with people that I call my
friend.
FL: The connection between policy and character.
OETTING:
You almost have to, do actions speak louder than words. All I can base this on
is the association that Dave Owen had with Senator Dole. And in my opinion
Senator Dole obviously looked out for Senator Dole, but he didn't look out for
Dave Owen. And I don't see that as a positive trait. I'm not in politics and
I understand politics is compromise, but there's also integrity. And if
someone has been involved with you in politics for twenty years and has worked,
everyone who surrounds you knows that person has done this, and then to abandon
them. Because he could have done some things and he did not. He chose not to.
So I think the question would have to be directed to Senator Dole, "Why didn't
you do that?"
FL: Circle back and briefly tell the story of what the charges were, nothing
turning up, and David ending up in prison. A short story line.
OETTING:
It would appear that initially the Bush campaign, when Dole was running for
President, like any campaign in hardball politics, were looking for something
where they could do something to hurt the other candidate. And so someone did
some digging and said there could be some question as to Dave Owens'
involvement as a representative of a gentleman who was looking for the
opportunity to find someone with some political clout in Kansas dealing with
paramutual betting and building up a racetrack. This led to an investigation
and ultimately was tried in a state court and the state judge says, "It's
political. The whole thing is a political witch hunt. You can't substantiate
the charges." And dismissed the charges.
But David made an error 'cause he went on the courthouse steps and in effect
said that the situation was politics and the Attorney General at the time was
more there to seek publicity than to seek the truth, etc. etc. And so he in
turn decided he would turn this over to the "Feds." And so it then became a
Federal case and they decided if the Feds can't get you on anything else, they
can get you on taxes. And so that's what it became. And after spending, I
don't know the exact amount, hundreds of thousands of dollars defending himself
he ultimately ended up in a court that was really still very political because
the majority of [the] people on the jury, and I don't know this to be a fact, but it
was in a Democratic county is where he was tried, and he's from a Republican
county. And I think a good many of the Democrats on that jury figured, "This
is a fatcat Republican. And if the Federal government says he did something
wrong he must be guilty." And so the ultimate result was that he was tried.
And the interesting thing is that when they came to sentencing, sentencing is
based on the amount of, in this case, that Dave had not paid. But he had paid
all of his taxes. So that the Federal judge recessed for a week so that they
could literally negotiate a figure that he would pay, and kind of pulled it out
of thin air. But the judge was trying in effect to help Dave in making sure
that it wouldn't be too big of a figure. So they used $4,200 and he in turn
was then sentenced to, I'm not sure of the actual sentencing, with parole he
should have been released in three months. But when it came time for the three
month parole, when he went before the parole person, which I did not know is a
Federal employee, he said he could tell by the body language that he wasn't
going to be paroled. And so ultimately he ended up serving seven months where
it should have been three months. And in effect had to fight to get someone to
review his parole hearing. And ultimately a Federal judge did review that and
based upon the additional four month time that he served said, "Look, there
will be no halfway house, there will be no parole officer. As far as I'm
concerned you are released because this has been a travesty from the
beginning." But it's seven months out of Dave's life and as the old
cliche is, where do you go back to get your reputation. David is
stronger for this and he's stronger because he chose to be stronger. And in
our conversations before he went in jail, and when he was in Kansas I saw him
every week that he was incarcerated. It was very obvious that he was not going
to let the system or this beat him. That they might take away his reputation,
but they certainly were not going to take away his ability to function and as
he said to me, "Hey, they can do anything they want to. I know I'm not
guilty."
And I think he's made a remarkable adjustment. We're closer. I think anybody
that cares about Dave Owen is closer to him. David told me, "You absolutely do
not have any inkling at what it's like until they shut the prison gate on you
and you now have absolutely no privileges or rights whatsoever. In one second
you're a free person and the next second you have no rights at all. I know
that his attitude and ideas changed about prisons, people in prisons, what it's
all about. My visiting him in there, I never thought I would visit anyone in
prison. Mine have changed. It's quite an education.
FL: Dave wanted you to tell the story then.
OETTING:
Yes, he asked me that. He called me and he said, "Look I've been talking
to the people at FRONTLINE and we're getting some pressure for me not to do
this. Would you sit down and talk to these people and tell them how you saw
it." And I said, "Sure." Dave Owen [spent] almost four days and nights with my
family and friends when I was going through my heart transplant. He did things
for my wife and daughter and my mom and dad, that there's no way you can ever
put a value on that or how you could ever repay it. Obviously in his asking if
I would do this, I said, "Certainly."
This is the letter that David sent me in March of '94 and I think one of the
ways that he kept part of his sanity was that he wrote a lot of letters and I
tried to write him weekly. And even though I was going to see him I would
write him letters. And this is a letter addressed to me. It says, "Dear
Dennis, Nothing can prepare a person to go to prison. In the span of one
second you experience the change of being a free man to becoming a number with
no freedom at all. All of my possessions were taken from me. I was strip
searched and given some clothes to wear that were paint stained and full of
holes from something being spilled on them. It seemed the guards do everything
possible to intimidate the new arrivals and to establish their superiority. I
was immediately given a job of cleaning baseboards with a toothbrush so I would
have to crawl around on the floor of our unit. One of the inmates told me to
just hang in there and they'll get tired of you if you don't rebel. Saying
goodbye to Laura was the worst punishment of all. I love her so much and being
separated will be the hardest part of my experience. When I stepped through the
gate and left her staring after me, I thought my heart would break. She's been
such a source of strength for me and this is going to be much harder on her
than for me in many ways. When I checked in I was assigned to a unit that is
one of the oldest buildings here so there isn't much space. The guard who
checked me in assigned me to a four man sleeping unit with three black inner
city drug dealers. I don't think I've ever been so frightened, but I couldn't
show it for fear of showing weakness. I didn't sleep much for the first few
days but I'm getting along okay with them at this point. I finally got some
decent clothes after standing in line for about an hour. Time here doesn't
mean anything. I was given steel-toed boots, better shirts, pants, and
underwear and socks and a trash bag to carry it in. I worry about my family
and the effects that my imprisonment is going to have on them. My grandsons
don't know about me yet and I hope they can be protected until I can explain it
to them myself someday. I can't help but wonder how Bob Dole could turn his
back on me after twenty years of working with him in good times and bad. He's
never bothered to learn the facts about what happened. He simply made an
instantaneous decision that was in his best interests politically to throw me
to the wolves. I though up to the minute I walked up to the prison that this
wrong would be righted and I would be spared this experience. This is
something that happens in a third world country, not in the United States of
America. I would appreciate you keeping an eye on things at home for me. You
are one person I know I can count on, no matter how tough it gets. I am
determined with God's help to not only survive this but to make it something
positive come from it. I've started a Bible study with another guy here and
we're using the textbooks from the Operation Timothy as our study guide. Also
I'm going to exercise every day to keep in good shape. Tell Sil and Shea hello
and thanks for everything. Dave."
We sent a lot of letters back and forth and I've got kind of a wacko sense of
humor so I would intentionally, the latest joke, I would try to clean it up.
The guards read everything so he said be careful what you say. But I got to
the point where it was kind of a ritual and I tried on Wednesday mornings to
sit down and just bring Dave up to date as what had been going on. Just very
homey things. I had a brother that was in 'Nam and when I was writing him I
said, "What do you want to know about?" And he said, "I want to know what's
going on at home." So I always wrote very mundane kind of things but I think
David kind of felt the same way.
FL: It seemed as you were reading it that you were sort of back in time.
OETTING:
Well, it's, yeah. This was tough. I never had a friend in prison. So what do
you do? My approach was to keep it light. But as Dave was trying to follow
through with the parole, trying to do these things, doors kept slamming. You
start saying, "Am I paranoid or what's really going on here?" From his point
of view. And we would talk about it. I think just to see somebody from the
outside. And as I would go there it was interesting because you got so you
know the other prisoners. And you would see them there with their wives and
their kids. It gave me a whole different perspective about people who are in
prison. And it's tough. I have suggested to David that he ought to write a
book about these types of experiences. I know his attitude has changed about
the affect of incarceration. As an example he said you could probably empty
two-thirds of the prisons in this country if you released the non-violent
offenders that were there for drug charges. And some of the people who were
there were so naive because depending on what state you're in or what area
it may be that you could have [a] marijuana cigarette on you.
FL: Going back before the prison experience. Where you talked about Dave and
his friendships. Did that alter your view of what people are capable of?
OETTING:
I think because of what happened to me as a heart transplant patient and what
happened to David, that what I've come to realize that the only things
important in your life are your friendships and your family. Nothing else
really does matter. I'm fairly aware of the savage parts of human beings. If
you are a person the least bit aware in our culture and our world, you have to
be. But in my particular case I had thousands of people praying for me around
the United States who'd never heard of me before. I think David would say that
he is a stronger person, and values friendships and family more so now than
before all of this happened to him. And to understand that don't look into the
future and deal with it then, that my god, you've got to live every day to the
ultimate. I'm here on a pass. And every day that I get to stick around the
grass is greener, the sky is bluer, the birds sing prettier and I think to a
certain degree, David feels that way too. So we're both very aware of the
inequities and the ugliness in the world but there's so much beauty. And it's
like anything else in life. What you choose to see. And I think he chooses to
see the good in life and so do I. And that's why this didn't get him. They
can't get him.
