Hearing ends with embezzler's sentencing delayed

Sentencing for convicted embezzler William Dancer was pushed back another month during a status conference hearing on Monday. The hearing was called to discuss Dancer’s condition after he reportedly suffered a heart attack Dec. 8.

Dancer’s attorney, Scott Hilderman, said Monday that Dancer told him he had been released from a Spokane hospital on Saturday and that he was seeing a doctor twice a week.

“They are slowly trying to get him to do more with the hope of improving his heart function,” Hilderman said. “They will know more in three months – in three months they will know whether or not he needs a pacemaker.”

Hilderman added that Dancer hadn’t asked his doctor whether or not he could safely travel to Libby. The attorney said that Dancer would inquire at his next appointment.

Prosecutor Marcia Boris requested that sentencing be scheduled after Jan. 25 because Dancer’s victim, business owner Bill Brown, would be unavailable to travel to Libby until then. Dancer was convicted in September of pocketing more than $200,000 from Brown’s family-owned business, Independence Home Center, located in Sagle, Idaho.  

District court judge Michael Prezeau did not set a sentencing date at the hearing, but agreed to have his secretary find an opening in his schedule after Jan. 25.

Prezeau requested that Hilderman present the court with an official source to determine Dancer’s condition and the necessity of seeing a doctor.

“It may be helpful if we had some sort of treatment notes or something like that instead of having to rely on second-hand hearsay,” Prezeau said.

Hilderman readily agreed with the judge’s statement.