Discomfort in the Spotlight

Feb. 8, 2015

Dale Fisher, key witness in the clarence gomery murder-for-hire case, opens up

Dale Fisher believes since he went to the police with the allegation that Traverse City attorney Clarence Gomery asked him to kill rival attorney Christopher Cooke, his name’s been dragged through the mud.

He says too much has been made in the media about his criminal past. He describes himself as an ordinary guy who last July got mixed up in a sordid situation that became one of the year’s biggest news stories.

Gomery, 59, pleaded not guilty to solicitation of murder charges. As Gomery’s Feb. 24 trial date approaches, the Northern Express sat down with Fisher, 45, to talk about the frustration the case has brought to his life.

Northern Express: Tell me why you’re upset about the way you’ve been portrayed in the media.

Dale Fisher: Every time they talk about me, they refer to me as a sex offender. I’m not a registered sex offender. I did have a sex crime in 1986 that they want to perpetually bring up. I was 17 years old.

Express: How would you describe yourself?

Fisher: I’m a dock installer. I have not been in trouble in 20 years. I do my job. I go home every night. I raise my son by myself. My ex-wife, we raised one 50-50; I raised one all by myself. He turned out to be a great kid. Graduated high school. He’s now playing junior hockey. He’s gonna go off to college next year. I’m just an ordinary dad who got put in a bad situation.

Express: What was your relationship with Clarence Gomery like?

Fisher: Strictly business. I never spent one moment of time with the guy outside of his office or doing his dock. I never hung out socially at all.

Express: But you apparently spent a lot of time at his office.

Fisher: I did hang out at his office randomly. I’d go in to see [attorney] Jim Pappas and if he wasn’t there, I’d talk to Clarence.

Express: Did you have any sense, prior to the case, that Gomery wanted to get rid of Cooke?

Fisher: Oh, yeah.

Express: So you hung around him enough to know that. Why would a dock installer spend so much time with a client? I mean, you put the dock in in the spring and take it out in the fall, right?

Fisher: You know, I went and fixed his boat three times. I had to fix his hoist three or four times. I had to move it once because the water got shallow. And then with Mr. Pappas, he had three jet skis, so I had to put the jet skis in. He called me a couple times when the jet skis broke down to fix them, put new batteries in. So, you know, I did a lot of work for those guys.

NE: In one section of the police report, witnesses from Gomery’s office told investigators that Gomery urged you to try to sleep with with Cooke’s wife.

Express: He was trying to get me to, yeah.

NE: Was he joking?

Fisher: No. He was trying to get me to destroy their marriage. He had so much spite and anger about the civil trial, he was trying to do anything he could. There was definitely a lot of tension from the civil trial that carried over.

Express: Did you have an affair with Cooke’s wife?

Fisher: We never touched one time. She’s a wonderful person and they’re a really nice family.

Express: Did you and Cooke get along?

Fisher: I did not have a problem with Mr. Cooke. He was always cordial to me. My son and his daughter dated, then he found out I had a criminal background. He asked me not to be around his family anymore. Because his wife and I were friends.

NE: And that led to a confrontation"¦

Express: We only had one confrontation. The other two times I’d met him at his home to drop off his daughter from hanging out with my son, he was cordial. I had no problems with him. The only confrontation I had had with Chris was at Jimmy John’s. Up until then, I had no problem with him. And I still don’t have a problem with him today.

Express: Do you have any idea why Gomery would have come to you?

Fisher: No, I don’t. I’ve been to counseling. I’ve been to the Third Level Crisis Center, in tears, trying to figure out why somebody would think that I have the capacity to take another human being’s life. It’s ruined my relationship with my girlfriend. It’s really created a lot of havoc in my life.

Express: Gomery’s defense attorney has sought (so far without success) to be able to argue that Gomery was the subject of a conspiracy. The court has ruled that defense inadmissible due to lack of evidence. Did you conspire to set up Clarence Gomery?

Fisher: You know what? This was (defense attorney Frank) Stanley’s fantasy world and that’s a joke. I had not spoken to Chris Cooke from the day we had the confrontation at Jimmy John’s until the day I called him and told him that Gomery had tried to hire me to kill him. We had not spoke one time.

Express: After you were approached by Gomery and you were considering what to do, did you imagine what a huge news story this would be? Did you realize your criminal record would become part of the story?

Fisher: I was really just scared. I didn’t know what to do. I knew that I needed to go to the police. It was just a matter of getting the courage to do it. And it was really hard, because it’s a serious matter and it affects a lot of people’s lives. And I didn’t mean to hurt Mr. Gomery and his family in any way. If I didn’t do what I did, Mr. Cooke might not be here anymore. So it was more, I was just scared.

Express: What do you think Gomery should do now?

Fisher: I have no hard feelings against the guy. What he does is his choice. I did my crimes in 1987 and I did my crimes in 1995, I paid my price to society and I have to answer to nobody, you know? If you commit a crime, you do your time and you move forward in life and nobody should hold that against you. So whatever Mr. Gomery choses to do, that’s his business. I don’t care either way. I have nothing against him and I hold no grudges against him.

Note: Dale Fisher is under investigation in connection with an October, 2014 retail fraud case, according to court documents. Fisher denies the allegation and no charges have been filed. Frank Stanley, Gomery’s attorney, also claims Fisher is currently in violation of the sex offender registration act and was a felon in possession of a firearm during the course of the Gomery investigation. He is seeking to be allowed to introduce these allegations during Gomery’s trial to call into question Fisher’s credibility.