ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
Though he was cleared of sexual assault charges, an accomplished local chiropractor’s business and reputation collapsed under publicity from a case built on evidence fabricated by a former Basalt Police Department detective, a recently filed federal lawsuit alleges.
Dr. Dave Jensen’s suit claims he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in business after his August 2022 arrest on a 21-count grand jury indictment finding him criminally liable for the behavior of one of his massage therapists, whom police alleged sexually assaulted clients. Jensen, 54, founded the Midvalley Chiropractic and Wellness Center in the mid-1990s and later the Valley Wellness Centers and the WIN Health Institute based in Basalt.
All of the charges ultimately were dropped against Jensen; the massage therapist, Nathaniel Gordon, was found not guilty by an Eagle County jury in October 2023 after standing trial on 13 counts of sexual misconduct with clients. Police arrested Gordon in November 2021.
Jensen’s suit pins the blame for his wrongful arrest and prosecution squarely on former Basalt Police detective Thomas Wright, alleging he deceived prosecutors into taking a case rife with lies and misinformation to a closed-door grand jury, which indicted Jensen for complicity for each of the original 21 counts against Nathaniel Gordon. Media coverage also fueled the spread of Wright-based misinformation, says the suit.
“The prosecutors in the case relied upon Corporal Wright’s made-up story as the case progressed, parroting Corporal Wright’s false statements to the Court, to defense counsel and continuing with Dr. Jensen’s prosecution,” the suit says. “None of Dr. Jensen’s indictment, arrest, confinement, prosecution, reputational damage, news stories repeating Corporal Wright’s lies, loss of livelihood, damage to his business and loss of liberty in connection with the criminal proceedings against him would have happened without Corporal Wright’s lies to the Eagle County Prosecutors, omissions to the Eagle County Prosecutors, repetition of those lies and omissions, and continued failure to correct those lies and omissions.”
Wright declined to comment when contacted on Wednesday.
“I can only say what the attorney is telling me, which is no comment,” he said.
Lawyer Andrew Ringel of Denver firm Hall & Evans LLC entered his appearance as Jensen’s counsel on Aug. 23. Ringel said in an email that he was following his general rule to not comment on active litigation.
Wright has until Oct. 21 to file an answer to the lawsuit, according to court documents.
Now an investigator at the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, Wright is a certified peace officer in good standing with the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST. According to online records supplied by POST, which is a unit of the criminal justice division of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Wright had no negative marks on his history as a police officer.
The third claim alleges Wright violated Jensen’s state constitutional rights by arresting him under false pretenses while having evidence that would have exonerated the chiropractor. The suit seeks punitive, compensatory and economic damages. The suit names Wright as a defendant in both his individual and official capacities
“Even once the charges were all dismissed and Dr. Jensen was able to reopen his business, his reputation, emotional state, patient volume and income were not the same,” says the suit, filed by lawyers Kate Stimson and Carey Bell of the Denver firm Stimson LaBranche Hubbard LLC. “Internet searches still return results with Dr. Jensen’s mugshot and articles about the false charges. Dr. Jensen’s business, emotional state and reputation continue to suffer to this day.”
The lawsuit’s roots date to November 2021, when a woman received a massage at the WIN Health Institute from Gordon. She scheduled four more appointments with Gordon at the time, the suit says.
“After scheduling the additional massages with Mr. Gordon, she came up with a plan to sue Mr. Gordon and Dr. Jensen,” the suit says.
Acting on the advice of a plaintiff’s lawyer, the woman contacted Wright, who was then with the Basalt Police Department, alleging that Gordon had digitally penetrated her without her consent during the massage. Gordon was arrested and charged with sexual assault.
Ensuing media attention from the arrest prompted other women to contact Basalt Police about Gordon, whom they alleged to have touched them inappropriately during massages but not to the extent of the first woman’s accusations, the suit says.
Also after the arrest, Wright led a public campaign to attract “other women to make allegations against Mr. Gordon.” Basalt Police officers, under Wright’s direction, cold-called Gordon’s massage clients asking if he had acted inappropriately. Wright also obtained Jensen’s client list and called about 90 women on it, while officers made more calls, the suit says.
Wright is alleged to have preserved interview recordings exclusively of women on Jensen’s list “who reported some type of uncomfortable or level of inappropriate experience” with Gordon, who was charged with 21 counts of sexual misconduct with 10 clients. The suit alleges hundreds of recordings of women who did not make accusations were not preserved.
“Corporal Wright knew that his attempted recruitment of accusers in this case was inappropriate,” the suit says. “Part of the recruitment included Corporal Wright speaking to a local therapist who worked with many women as her patients who also were patients at the WIN Institute.
“Corporal Wright, without having the women sign releases of information or without requesting the therapist get HIPAA compliant releases, shared information about the investigation and got names of other accusers from the therapist. Corporal Wright took his notes from his contact with the therapist and placed only those notes in a file that he kept under his desk amidst a stack of papers. This secret file was never disclosed to the defense and was located only after Corporal Wright left the Basalt Police Department in the middle of this case.”
Intent on getting Jensen charged, Wright constructed a story about a “hypersexual” environment at WIN Health Institute where the chiropractor made improper comments and jokes about women, the suit says. That type of atmosphere alleged by Wright made Jensen complicit and enabled Gordon to commit the crimes, the suit alleges.
As well, none of the 10 women who made accusations against Gordon were referred to him by Jensen, the suit says. Though Wright’s case against Jensen was a bust from the start, the detective persisted, the suit says.
“Corporal Wright knew but did not tell the Eagle County prosecutors that he was just spinning a made-up story to build a bigger case,” says the suit, adding that Wright had convinced prosecutors to take the case against Jensen to a grand jury in Eagle County.
Wright told the same stories to the grand jury, the suit says.
“In the grand jury proceedings, Corporal Wright deceived the grand jury with the same lies and omissions that he had used to deceive the Eagle County prosecutors. As a result, the grand jury indicted Dr. Jensen as a complicitor on every single one of the counts against Mr. Gordon.”
After his arrest, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies suspended Jensen’s chiropractor license until the outcome of the case.
“Dr. Jensen was ultimately forced to close his practice, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, putting many people out of work, leaving many people in the community in pain without his treatments, and destroying his reputation,” the suit says.
Jensen is back in good standing with DORA and his alternative-health businesses are open in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Following Jensen and his lawyers’ private meetings with Eagle County prosecutors and court filings made by Jensen, the district attorney’s office dropped 10 counts in late 2022, on top of several others previously dismissed due to statutes of limitations and a lack of probable cause, the suit says.
The prosecution dismissed all of the charges against Jensen on Feb. 2, 2023, one day before Wright was scheduled to take the stand regarding Jensen’s motion to throw out the charges based on “material misrepresentations made to the grand jury,” the suit says.
Wright left the Basalt Police Department in 2022 for a position at the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office. Media reports about his alleged lies to the grand jury during closed proceedings prompted a letter from Wright that was published by The Aspen Times in February 2023.
The letter says in part: “I find myself in a situation that I believe no matter what I say, it will be the wrong thing and, ultimately, will be judged harshly. I will be the first to say that I believe public servants, especially those in public safety, should be held to a higher standard. I am no exception. Against the advice of the DA and my current command to speak out, I want you to know the truth. Many people have asked me over the last few months why I haven’t commented or given any type of statement through this process. It has been the culture and common standing that during investigations or the court process, the prosecution and potential witnesses refrain from statements or telling our story. The defense definitely has the upper hand in this arena and typically has a pretty long leash to say what they want. They can even make unsubstantiated claims and bend the truth in the public eye hoping for support.”
Wright’s letter said that in his 22 years in public service, the accusations recounted by the newspapers marked a first in his career.
“I did not lie and have never lied in a court process or ever under oath. I have never lied about any case I’ve ever had in my career. Did I leave the Basalt Police Department? Yes. Did it have anything to do with this case? No, I had an opportunity to grow more and advance my career with a larger agency.”