A deadbeat dad considered by law-enforcement officials to be one of their best undercover drug informants has been sentenced to 15 years to life on child-rape charges.
Craig Dimick was sentenced Thursday to 15 years to life on charges of rape of a child and sodomy of a child. Each are first-degree felonies. He also received sentences of one to 15 years on two counts of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. The four sentences will be served concurrently.Eighth District Judge A. Lynn Payne also ordered Dimick to pay $1,150 restitution now, and for all the victim's future psychological counseling bills.
Dimick indicated he wants to appeal the decision because of an undisclosed conflict with the jury. His attorney, Eugene Austin, filed to withdraw from the case, and the judge appointed Patricia Geary to handle the appeal.
Austin had asked the judge to give his client probation because he said the crime happened under extraordinary circumstances, Dimick never used weapons or force and the victim was not physically harmed or sold into prostitution.
"There might not have been any physical injury, but there has been emotional injury, and you can't replace feelings of self worth," Payne said. "These are very, very serious offenses."
Dimick, who received nearly $20,000 from federal and local law enforcement agencies while turning in friends and family after selling them illegal guns and drugs, was convicted in Roosevelt in December of four felony charges involving sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14.
Dimick gained notoriety in eastern Utah when he made dozens of drug and weapons deals between 1990 and 1992 as an undercover informant paid by the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the Uinta Basin Narcotics Strike Force. The multiagency sting dubbed "Operation Basin Roundup" resulted in 60 arrests - mostly on minor drug charges - in April 1992.
While Dimick earned thousands of taxpayer dollars as an informant, he neglected to pay child support for a dozen years, owing more than $47,000 to an ex-wife - whom he also turned into authorities after selling her a small bag of marijuana.