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The former executive director of Salt Lake City's This Is the Place Heritage park plans to plead guilty to misusing funds from the heritage park, a defense attorney said Tuesday.
Matthew Dahl, of Holladay, was scheduled to plead guilty in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, but the plea is now delayed until Nov. 16 as Dahl's attorneys and the U.S. Attorneys' Office continue to iron out details of a plea agreement, said Dahl's attorney Greg Skordas.
"It is almost resolved," said Skordas, adding he expects Dahl to enter a guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate David Nuffer in two weeks.
Dahl was charged in July with felony mail fraud in connection with swindling funds from the heritage park. That charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Skordas has said his client has repaid the park about two-thirds of the $240,000 he misused.
A January internal audit of the park's $3.5 million budget revealed Dahl's alleged actions over the course of 2½ years. Dahl was fired and the audit's findings were turned over to the Salt Lake City Police Department and eventually the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Dahl's federal mail fraud charge stems from allegations that he sent a foundation check for $6,800 through the mail to the Trevor Roche Company, a cattle ranch in Parma, Idaho, according to court documents. The check, sent on Nov. 23, was for Dahl's personal purposes, court documents state.
Dahl "used his position ... to submit false and fraudulent invoices to the foundation for reimbursement, representing the invoices to be legitimate operating expenses of the foundation, when in fact, [Dahl] submitted the invoices to the foundation to reimburse his personal expenses," court documents state.
Skordas said Dahl has so far paid back more than $100,000 by liquidating his retirement funds and putting his home up for sale.
This Is the Place has since named Ellis Ivory, who was the chairman of the board of trustees for the foundation, as its chief executive officer. The heritage park, which pays tribute to Utah's pioneer past, underwent an external audit and every department reviewed its policies and procedures to help prevent future theft.
Dahl, who previously oversaw the American West Heritage Center outside Logan, was hired to manage This Is the Place nearly five years ago as financial problems threatened to close the attraction. At the time, the park had a $2 million budget and was losing money despite an annual state subsidy of $700,000.
State legislators appropriated a $2 million emergency bailout in March 2006, fearing This Is the Place would not be able to reopen. Dahl was credited with increasing attendance at the park from about 50,000 visitors each year to more than 275,000, which has helped improve the park's finances.
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