NOW A FREE MAN, GIBBONS IS READY TO MOVE ON WITH HIS LIFE

He looks more relaxed and smiles more freely than during his three-day
trial on criminal charges. But there's still some underlying tension as
Dale Moroni Gibbons sits in a Holladay restaurant, arms folded across his
chest, not eating a bite, while discussing the past year under a spotlight
from police, prosecutors and the media.

Gibbons was acquitted June 20 of third-degree felony methamphetamine
possession and dealing in materials harmful to a minor. In a hushed
courtroom filled with reporters and onlookers, the jury forewoman read "not
guilty" to both counts, and Gibbons burst into tears before being enveloped
in repeated hugs from his jubilant attorneys.

Two weeks later, he has sold his luxurious house, submitted his resume to
several headhunters, plans to move to wherever he can get a good job and
enjoyed a warm reunion with his now-16-year-old daughter whom he hadn't
been able to see in a year until the criminal case was resolved.

He anticipates they'll undergo some counseling as they resume their
relationship. "We are trying to ease back into it," he said.

Gibbons is taking her to Mexico for a vacation and has the same extensive
custody arrangement he had before.

Meanwhile, he's on good terms with his second wife - their "amicable"
divorce came through a few months ago. He also has a somewhat better
relationship with his first wife, who is the mother of their daughter. The
daughter lived for seven years with Gibbons and his second wife, then
wanted to live with her mother in Arizona.

At first, the girl's mother was very distressed about the events of last
June when Gibbons was arrested.

"Given the allegations that were made about me, mostly by police, if I was
on the other side I would be upset - and she was indeed upset," Gibbons
said. But he said that after his first wife learned about the situation,
she described it as a "circus" and began to side with with her ex-husband.

Gibbons' life became public June 12, 2001, when he called 911 from his home
to report that his 19-year-old girlfriend had attempted suicide.

Deputies found that young woman "non-responsive" in a bed and also found
Gibbons' 15-year-old daughter in "similar condition" in another room,
according to court documents. Both had "significant amounts of alcohol in
their blood," the girlfriend tested positive for cocaine, and the daughter
had an "unknown substance" in her system, according to court documents.
Gibbons says the substance was the over-the-counter medication Benadryl.

Court documents also said that seven "hard-core pornography" magazines were
in the daughter's bedroom. Gibbons originally was charged with another
third-degree felony of child endangerment, but that was dropped before he
went to trial.

Gibbons, 42, has filed a civil lawsuit against prosecutors and police,
claiming that he was defamed, that his civil rights were violated and that
statements made about him have cost him $6 million. The lawsuit will let
his story be told, he said.

"I would like to improve the system so this type of thing doesn't happen
again. At the end of the day, it was a huge waste of my time and taxpayer
resources."

Gibbons insists, with a decisive "no," that he never considered entering
into a plea bargain with prosecutors: It was partly a matter of principle,
and it also was because of his daughter. "She's reading allegations in the
paper that I tried to hurt her. For a child, that could be quite
depressing," he said. "I thought, 'Damn it, I am going to fight you guys
and exonerate myself.'

"I was fortunate enough to have resources enough to fight them, but even
with that it was very daunting at times," said Gibbons, the former chief
financial officer for Zions Bancorp. He resigned from his job, which paid
$2.1 million per year, after the arrest.

He is convinced that police and prosecutors wanted to make an example of
him. "They clearly wanted some kind of face or poster boy to go with their
war on raves," which are loud dance parties where drugs such as Ecstacy
frequently are consumed.

While his home was being searched by police on June 21, 2001, Gibbons said
a Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy called Fox TV and tipped them off about
the pending arrest while he sat handcuffed on the couch. After he was
arrested, Gibbons said he was escorted to the squad car farthest from the
house by a deputy who walked slowly, with TV cameras rolling all the while.

Is he bitter?

"There were times during the past year that I harbored a fair degree of
rage," Gibbons admits.

Family and friends stuck by him, and that kept him going.

However, he can see how someone else might give up and not fight. "There is
this collective pressure for you to plead out, and I can see how people do."