Man accused of molesting girls gets 40 years

A Whitefish man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting young girls.

District Judge Ted O. Lympus sentenced Bruce Allen Frey to 60 years in Montana State Prison with 20 years suspended for three counts of sexual assault.

Frey was sentenced Aug. 12. Frey had already served 327 days in the county jail that will count toward his sentence. He also has to pay $9,181.45 in prosecution and jury fees.

Frey had been convicted in January of assaulting the girls on a regular basis from 2004 to 2006. The girls were under 12; one was as young as 6.

“It was a great sense of relief to the victims and their family to see some resolution to this matter,” Deputy County Attorney Stacy Bowman said. “It was a relief to the county attorney’s office as well, but even more so for them.”

Frey will be eligible for parole in 10 years, according to his public defender, Lane Bennett.

“That was a harsher sentence than the one recommended by the Office of Probation and Parole in their presentence investigation report,” Bennett said.

According to Bennett, the public defender’s office is planning to appeal a number of court rulings made before and during the trial that determined what evidence was allowed in court.

“It has to do with certain types of evidence that can come in and part of it will be an attack on our state’s rape-shield law,” Bennett said. “In this case one of the victims had been subject to prior abuse by another individual.”

Bennett said the public defenders believe the rape-shield law is misinterpreted and misapplied by the Montana Supreme Court. Several states have already done away with that type of statute, he said.

“We believe this is one of the right cases to challenge that rape-shield statute,” Bennett said. “I know that we’ve been looking for cases to challenge that, even at the federal court level.”

Bennett said another public defender will take up the appeal.

Frey was arrested and charged in 2009. During the trial in January, Frey denied all charges of sexual assault against the minors.

Frey has a long criminal history. He was designated a persistent felony offender after burning down the Whitefish High School gymnasium in 1977, a conviction that earned him 18 months in jail and 14 1/2 years of probation. He also has been convicted of theft and drug-dealing charges.