Man Says Fall at Pier Caused Injury to Back

From the early moments of jury selection, attorney Michael S. Duberchin warned prospective jurors that his client was a convicted perjurer--a not-so-minor detail that prompted the dismissal of some panelists who said there was no way they could take his trip-and-fall claim against the city of Ventura seriously.

But late Friday morning, after finding 12 people who said they could hear the case impartially, Duberchin told Jerry J. Fraschilla’s story and asked the panel to award a judgment to his client, who claims to have suffered a debilitating back injury last year after tripping over a loose plank while jogging on the Ventura Pier.

For the 61-year-old Oxnard man and his girlfriend, Darlene Faye Gillespie, an original member of the “Mickey Mouse Club” expected to be a key witness in the case, the courtroom scene was familiar.

In the last year, the pair have been tangled up in two other cases--a shoplifting trial last summer in Ventura County Municipal Court and an ongoing federal securities fraud case in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

But this time, Fraschilla is the one making the accusations.

An ex-Marine, Fraschilla contends he was badly injured when he tripped over a board while jogging on the Ventura Pier with Gillespie on the afternoon of March 4, 1997.

He is seeking unspecified medical and general damages from the city and one of its contractors who did work on the pier.

“This is a monumentally simple case,” Duberchin said Friday in his opening statement. “The plaintiff’s position is that there was no warning on the boardwalk when he entered it.”

Holding up the long, thin piece of wood he said clipped his client, the Calabasas attorney argued the city failed to properly anchor it to the pier during a repair project, after wedging similar boards between the structure’s larger planks.

But in his opening statement, Oxnard attorney Terrence J. Bonham said the city was not at fault and called Fraschilla’s claim “patently ridiculous.” Bonham, who is representing the city, described Fraschilla as a convicted criminal who once used a fake name, driver’s license and Social Security number. He said evidence to be presented during the three-day trial will show the plaintiff had a history of medical problems, including back pain, prior to his alleged fall.