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Attorneys for a young man repeatedly subjected to abuse by his foster-turned-adoptive father are seeking sanctions against the State of Arizona for failing to disclose information about another foster child allegedly subjected to maltreatment in the same household.
Ryan Frodsham is awaiting a jury trial later this year in Cochise County Superior Court in his lawsuit which alleges negligence by the State of Arizona, through the Department of Child Safety (DCS), as well as Catholic Community Services. His adoptive father David Frodsham is serving a 17-year state prison term after pleading guilty to various acts of abuse of a minor.
Two other men are also imprisoned for their role in the abuse.
During the upcoming trial, attorneys for Ryan Frodsham will present evidence to the jurors of police calls and other social services visits to the Sierra Vista home of David and Barbara Frodsham. Those attorneys, Taylor Boren and Lynne Cadigan, previously asked DCS officials to turn over records of any other abused or maltreated foster children who were placed in the Frodsham’s home.
The defendants did so, according to court records, but Boren alleges at least one child is missing from the information.
According to last week’s motion for sanctions, Boren and Cadigan recently secured a sworn declaration from the biological father of two foster children who were reportedly placed in the Frodsham home in late 2012. The time period coincides with some of the reports of abusive behavior in the household.
The man’s declaration asserts that Barbara Frodsham delivered his two-year-old daughter and infant son for his first visit in early 2013. The girl was severely injured, according to the father, and appeared to have been beaten.
“His daughter had bruises across her forehead, fingernail gouges in her face, and lacerations around her eyes,” Boren notes in the motion.
But when the father wanted to call the police, a state child welfare worker allegedly threatened him against doing so “if he ever wanted to see his children again,” Boren wrote. The father also contends state employees took photographs of his daughter’s injuries.
The new information which could be helpful in Ryan Frodsham’s case poses a problem for his attorneys because much of the pretrial discovery process in the nearly four year old case has been completed. Having to reopen discovery could delay the trial.
“If Plaintiff is only now learning about this ‘missing’ report of child abuse, neglect, and/or endangerment -three months before trial- how can Plaintiff be confident that all information related to abuse and/or maltreatment that had occurred in the Frodshams’ home has been produced and that the information being presented to the jury at trial is complete and accurate?” the sanction motion argues.
“Defendant State was asked to produce all documentation related to complaints of abuse and/or maltreatment that had occurred within the Frodshams’ home,” Boren further argues. “Failure to disclose adverse or unfavorable information -like here- must be met with a proportionally significant remedy.”
One such remedy proposed by Boren and Cadigan is for Judge Jason Lindstrom to instruct the jury that it may (or perhaps, must) draw “an adverse inference” about the girl’s time in the Frodsham home. This would mean the jurors could assume the undisclosed information was unfavorable to the State’s interest.
The recently filed motion for sanctions will likely be mentioned during a status conference Lindstrom will conduct Tuesday. However, no ruling can be made until the State’s privately retained attorneys have sufficient time to formally respond to the motion.
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