Stephanie Fromm

NEW ULM — A two-day court trial for a rural Sleepy Eye woman accused of abusing three children by making them take cold showers, lie dripping wet on a concrete basement floor and chasing them around a farmyard in her vehicle last fall, began Thursday.

Stephanie A. Fromm, 32, 24262 340th Avenue, was charged in two cases, filed Aug. 31 and Sept. 11, 2018. The charges include felony threats of violence, two counts of felony second-degree assault, gross misdemeanor contributing to the need for protection or services and three counts of gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child.

Her husband, Andy J. Fromm, 37, was charged Sept. 11, 2018 with felony threats of violence, three counts of gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child and two counts of misdemeanor domestic assault. He pled guilty to one count of malicious punishment of a child and domestic assault May 17. The other counts were dismissed in a plea agreement. He is set to be sentenced at 10:30 a.m. July 15.

The case began last fall when Stephanie Fromm’s nine-year-old step daughter told a friend at Springfield Public School that her father punched her. The friend told school officials before the children, ages 9, 12 and 13, told Brown County Family Services Child Protection Worker Stacy Helget and Brown County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jeremy Reed that their parents were abusing them.

The children said they were forced to sleep on a cold, concrete basement floor without pillows or blankets, run up and down basement steps for long periods of time, run up and down a farmyard driveway for extended periods and that Stephanie Fromm chased them around the farmyard from her motor vehicle, stopping just short of hitting them, as they scrambled to get out of the way.

One child said Stephanie Fromm later came to a shop on the farm and yelled at the children for not saying “hi” to her.

The children said they were also in trouble because they were not supposed to play electronic games and were told to stand in a corner or given chores to do as punishment.

A search warrant was executed at the Fromm home on Sept. 13, 2018. A number of electronic items were seized including equipment used to record video from a number of cameras inside and outside the residence.

On Sept. 28, New Ulm Police Investigator Chris Moellenhoff and Reed began forensic examination of the digital evidence in the cases. Due to the hard drive formats, they were unable to physically examine the digital evidence until the Washington County Sheriff’s Office helped the investigators locate video footage of verified incidents the children described, including Stephanie Fromm chasing the children in the farmyard and spending long periods of time on the basement floor.

Each of the three children testified Thursday, telling similar stories. They all said they feel safer now living with their biological mother.

Another 10-year-old daughter who was not a stepchild of Stephanie Fromm, said she was punished differently when she misbehaved. The girl said she was grounded by her mother and told to do other chores and babysit a younger sibling.

The court trial continues at 9 a.m. Friday in Brown County District Court.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.