Notorious batterer deported to Canada

A man convicted of what many consider the most egregious case of spousal abuse in state history has been deported to Canada.

Victor David, 66, had said he planned to fight extradition to his native country shortly before his release from prison last month. But on Sept. 15, three weeks after being released from a Spokane-area prison, David arrived in Canada, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE).

Dorothy Stefan, chief counsel for ICE in Seattle, said David admitted that when he was arrested for his wife's assault he broke U.S. law by carrying a firearm.

"For whatever reason he didn't pursue staying in the United States," Stefan said, adding that for David to return he would have to get permission from the U.S. government. Such permission, she added, "would be extremely unlikely."

David continues to proclaim his innocence nine years after medics pulled his emaciated, battered wife, Linda, from the cramped and dirty sailboat in Everett where authorities say she was held captive. Police found her covered in vomit and surrounded by dog feces. Her nose was bulbous, ears cauliflowered and her limbs deformed by years of untreated fractures.

"He definitely did not do it, and he felt he got railroaded," said his attorney John Crowley.

David had some "very obvious psychological issues" that prosecutors "totally minimized" in court, Crowley said. He said he hasn't talked to David since his deportation.

Crowley said David wants to be retried on the assault charge.

Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Roe said he doesn't know what the basis would be for a retrial.

"The further away he is from Linda David and the citizens of the state of Washington, the happier I think we'll all be," Roe said Wednesday

Upon his release from prison, David said he wanted to be reunited with his estranged wife. He faces three restraining orders keeping him from her.

Linda David, 58, doesn't remember him. Despite years of therapy, she can barely talk, can hardly see, can shuffle only a few steps without assistance and has no short-term memory.

Lynne Fulp, executive director of Partners in Care, the guardianship firm appointed to care for Linda David and oversee her trust, has kept her whereabouts hidden from Victor David.

For more than a decade, the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) paid him to serve as his wife's caregiver after he claimed she had multiple sclerosis. But a DSHS worker became suspicious and summoned Everett police in early 1997 to the rotting sailboat in Everett's Seacrest Marina where the couple lived.

In April 2001, Victor David was convicted of second-degree assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released Aug. 21 after being credited for the time he had served in jail awaiting trial and for good behavior while in prison.

The state paid a record $8.8 million to Linda David after a claim was filed on her behalf alleging DSHS was negligent in the handling of her case.

Her caregivers, who also are trustees of the settlement, have pressed for the couple's divorce. A King County Superior Court granted a dissolution in 2005 and in August, an appellate court dismissed Victor David's appeal.