Photo: Ivan Duane Froit
A Flippin man who was put on 10 years probation in Marion County for battering his then 2-year-old son is now facing drug-related charges in Baxter County.
Thirty-two-year-old Ivan Duane Froit was arrested and booked into the Baxter County Detention Center Jan. 29 at 2:30 a.m.
Froit’s arrest came when a Gassville police officer stopped a vehicle in which Froit was a passenger for a traffic infraction.
The officer reported Froit and the female driver were acting “very nervous.”
Froit initially denied he had any illegal substances on his person or in the vehicle. However, the officer reported finding a cigarette package containing a black tar substance on waxed paper that field tested positive for heroin.
After the discovery, Froit was handcuffed and placed in the officer’s patrol vehicle.
Froit told the officer he had used heroine in the past but did not know any of the drug was inside the vehicle. He also said he “would take the charge for the heroin.”
He is charged with possession of a controlled substance and with violating his probation in the Marion County child injury case.
ON PROBATION FOR INJURING SON
In late July 2019, Froit’s young son was seen at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock.
The child was reported to have abrasions, swelling to the upper lip and bruising to the cheeks, chin, forehead, temple and under both eyes.
There was also “palpable swelling and bruising of the scalp just above the left ear.”
Froit and a woman with whom he had been in a relationship were parents of the child, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Each had been granted visitation.
When the injuries were detected, the young boy had been with Froit for a 14-day period starting July 14, 2019.
The mother told investigators when Froit returned the child to her, he claimed the boy had been injured when he fell while playing.
The boy was taken to ACH on July 30, 2019. A physician at the hospital said, in her opinion, the number and location of the bruises made it unlikely they would have been caused from a playground fall.
The doctor said the injuries suggested the child had been struck on multiple occasions. She reported there was no specific pattern to the bruising to point to whether an implement or a hand or fist had been used to strike the boy.
The appearance of the bruising indicated most of the injuries had been inflicted recently.
Flippin police officers were called to the mother’s residence within 15 minutes after Froit returned the injured boy to her care.
Officers searched for Froit, but he had already fled the scene. The mother told investigators Froit called her on July 31, 2019 and told her he was staying with a friend but refused to disclose his location.
Froit eventually pled guilty to the charge of second-degree domestic battering and was sentenced in late January 2020.
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