Legal woes eroding Yuman's settlement

Despite winning a nearly $2 million settlement from the Catholic Church six years ago in a molestation lawsuit, Yuman David Donald Frei says he is practically penniless.

He said a Yuma County Superior Court judge issued an injunction against the settlement money, which was set up in a trust fund in his name, due to the legal proceedings against him in the past several years.

Of that money, Frei claims that well over $1 million has been paid to attorneys and experts, as well as other court-related costs associated in the cases for and against him. Another $600,000, he said, has been awarded to his daughter after she won a civil settlement against him.

"Sign me up for this ride again. I'm getting dizzy," Frei said. "I have been locked up in prison and all my money has been taken away."

Frei said he can't give an exact figure as to how much he was awarded in his settlement due to having signed a confidentiality agreement with the church.

According to The Sun's archives, Frei's settlement was for $1.7 million. He was awarded the settlement a year before he went to trial.

The latest installment of the settlement, a $504,994 deferred payment, was deposited into his trust fund in early October. He has no access to that money either.

Frei filed a suit in Yuma County Superior Court in December 1997 alleging that Robert Trupia, formerly a monsignor and associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, molested him on several occasions while he was a student at St. Francis School from 1973 to 1974.

The case was settled out of court in 2002 and church officials in Tucson stripped Trupia, who had already been suspended in 1992, of his priesthood.

Frei said while he was at the Yuma County Sheriff's Office recently, deputies tried to serve him with a civil judgment, but he refused to sign it.

"I didn't accept it," Frei said. "I wrote 'refused to sign' due to wrong information and false judgment on it and gave it back."

The court file for the civil case did not include a copy of the judgement that Frei said deputies tried to serve him and sheriff's officials said any document they would serve would be issued from the court.

A Yuma Superior Court judge awarded Frei's daughter the settlement following a civil trial, which Frei did not attend.

As part of that ruling the judge ordered a $675,000 supersedeas bond be set. A supersedeas bond is a bond that a court requires from an appellant who wants to delay payment of a judgment until the appeal is over.

Frei's ex-girlfriend, and the mother of his daughter, Tracy Lee Lynch, filed the lawsuit in January 2004 on behalf of the child.

Frei said he is seeking to overturn the civil judgment but doesn't have any money left to pay the $675,000 supersedeas bond set by the court.

"Since I don't have the money to pay for the bond, they can act on the original judgment and take the money," Frei explained.

Court records indicate a motion was filed with the court on Frei's behalf to have the bond waved, but the judge in the case denied the motion and as a result the bond remained in place.

Frei also did not show up for a civil trial to separate his parental rights over his daughter and as result they were taken away.

Since he can't access his trust fund, Frei said he also can't pay the court-ordered child support on his daughter, and claims each unpaid payment is being assessed a 10 percent late fee.

Frei, who claims to be a victim of domestic violence laws, said he believes the cases that have been brought against him, both civil and criminal, have been an attempt to use the legal system to make sure he doesn't receive the settlement he won from the Catholic Church.

Sgt. Ryland Kroutch of the Yuma County Sheriff's Office, who is now married to Frei's ex-girlfriend and has custody of his daughter, only had one comment about the situation.

"I can't be mad at the guy. I actually feel sorry for him," said Kroutch, who was commenting on his wife's behalf. "He has a history of drug use and sexual abuse and they have had a major effect on his life."

Kroutch and Lynch were involved in a relationship during the investigation into the offenses against Frei, and have since married.

According to a pre-sentence report written back in 2002 by the Yuma County Adult Probation Office, Frei admitted to using methamphetamine on a weekly basis.

In June 2003, a jury in Superior Court convicted Frei of child abuse and sentenced him to 4-1/2 years in prison for telling his then-7-year-old daughter to swallow a Clonazapam pill, a prescription sleeping pill, during a visit to his home.

However that conviction was overturned in 2005 by the Arizona Court of Appeals and remanded back to Yuma County Superior Court for further proceedings.

A Yuma County Superior Court judge later dismissed the child abuse case against Frei after a prosecutor said the county attorney's office would not seek a new trial.

But Frei's legal problems don't end there. He was indicted in October on two counts of aggravated harassment for violating court orders his most recent ex-girlfriend had against him. The case has been assigned to the same judge who presided over both his previous criminal and civil cases.

"That judge has already sent me to prison once," Frei said. "If he does it again he is going to throw away the key."

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.