Frank, Cynthia Fregiato retire in 2023
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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Times Leader presents a look back at the past year this week with Eastern Ohio's Top 10 stories of 2023, as selected by the newspaper's editorial staff.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Frank Fregiato has left a lasting impression on the area during his proud judicial career, which closed out in 2023 with his retirement celebration in June.
It was news to many when Frank Fregiato took medical leave at the end of February and subsequently announced his retirement in April. He served as common pleas judge since 2013 and as presiding judge of the court since 2014, and has been a larger-than-life presence in the court, bringing a passion for the job and an exuberant style on the bench.
Fregiato presided over such high-profile cases as the trial of David Kinney for the murder of Brad McGarry in 2017, which has continued to garner national attention and was the subject of a Dateline NBC episode in October.
He also brought that passion to the drug court program, created to help drug offenders receive counseling and help and a chance to have their criminal charges removed.
A sizable crowd including courthouse staff and officials and members of the Belmont County Bar Association, along with family and friends visited Fregiato during his retirement party, wished him well and shared memories. Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy of the Ohio Supreme Court stopped by, along with Jim Carnes, who served as a state senator from 1995-2004, and Mary DeGenaro, former Ohio Supreme Court justice and Seventh District Court of Appeals judge, and Seventh District Court of Appeals Judges David D'Apolito and Carol Ann Robb.
His wife, Cynthia Fregiato, who served as Belmont County Clerk of Courts since 2019, retired later in August. She also had an impressive record of public service as a 23-year member of the Belmont County Board of Elections.
Frank and Cynthia Fregiato were also instrumental in spearheading the Staying Clean Car Show to raise money for preventive outreach to keep students off drugs. The car show has since grown into a community event and fundraiser.
The Fregiatos were part of the St. Clairsville Rotary Club and were active in instituting a countywide program to provide dictionaries to all third-graders. Frank Fregiato is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the American Council of Exercise Certified Personal Trainers and the Hendrysburg Masons.
They retired to the Cincinnati area. Frank and Cynthia Fregiato spoke to the Times Leader this week, Frank Fregiato said they were settling in.
"We are both doing extremely well," he said. "We have been working very hard and diligently and we have had a great deal of success in terms of our home and visiting with our children and our grandchildren.
"We have had a great deal of success in terms of maintaining contacts with the people back home," he added. "We have enjoyed greatly the relationship that has continued with respect to the people back home in Belmont County. We try our best to maintain contact with everyone back home."
Cynthia Fregiato said they were enjoying being close to family and making renovations on their new home.
"Frank is keeping up with his personal training certificates. Being retired, you don't really realize how fast the day goes," she said. "We're both staying busy. ... We're enjoying our grandchildren immensely. I tell people we have become six great basketball groupies, because we go to all my grandsons' basketball games that we can, and baseball games in Indianapolis, and our daughter only lives two blocks down the street from us, so we get to see them quite a bit.
"We miss people back home, but a lot of people have sent us cards and are reaching out," she said, adding they maintain a very strong relationship with such Belmont County figures as Juvenile and Probate Judge Al Davies and Carnes, as well as other friends. "We left our offices in good shape."
They also said it was heartwarming to see the events like the Staying Clean Car Show going strong.
Cynthia Fregiato said they welcome visitors and friends can reach out to her former staff at the Clerk of Courts office to get in touch.