Settlement calls for wife's life insurance to pay for husband's defense in murder case
A Florida physician accused of murdering his wife reached a settlement with her life insurer that could help him avoid conviction in the Leon County case.
It provides for a $200,000 payment to the criminal defense attorney for Dr. Adam Frasch, as well as a $125,000 payment to the law firm defending him in a civil wrongful death lawsuit brought by his wife’s estate, reports the Tallahassee Democrat. Another lawyer is to receive $25,000 for unspecified civil litigation services and the physician himself could get $150,000.
An additional $500,000 from the $1 million policy for Samira Frasch goes to the couple’s two children and two other children of hers. A court’s approval is required before the settlement is final.
The 48-year-old doctor maintains he is innocent in the death of his wife, who was found dead at the bottom of a swimming pool at her home last year. A divorce Samira Frasch had sought was ongoing, and she had been awarded custody of the couple’s daughters and sole possession of their home, the newspaper reports.
An autopsy found she had died of drowning and head trauma. Attorney Clyde Taylor, who is defending the doctor in the case, says the death could well have been an accident.
The weakness of the state’s first-degree murder case supported his client’s release on $250,000 bail, with conditions including an ankle monitor, Taylor told the Democrat. He said the case involves “far, far, far more reasonable doubt as to the guilt of my client” than almost any other he has defended.
Hat tip: Daily Mail
Related coverage:
Tallahassee Democrat: “Frasch murder investigation reveals couple’s volatile relationship”
