Daniel F. Froman was arrested Jan. 20 on refiled felony charges, as reported last week, with bond set at $250,000.
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At Froman’s arraignment on Jan. 25 before Judge J. Bartley Spear, the bond was reduced to $100,000, and he was released from custody after being incarcerated at the regional jail since last Wednesday. The $100,000 bond posted on the original charges was transferred to this case.
Pauline Froman turned herself in this morning (Wednesday) and was arraigned before Judge Spear. Her bond was lowered from $250,000 to $100,000. Mrs. Froman surrendered her passport and is to be supervised by Court Services with electronic monitoring. The $100,000 bond posted on the original charges was transferred to this case.
The preliminary hearings for Daniel Froman and Pauline Froman have now been set for 9 a.m. March 18 in the Daviess County Circuit Court.
Charges against Danny and Pauline Froman of the now defunct Gallatin Grain Company were dismissed last Wednesday and refiled with changes and additions. Fifteen additional felony charges were filed against Pauline Froman and a new misdemeanor charge against Daniel Froman.
According to Daviess County Prosecutor Annie Gibson, the dismissal and refiling of charges last Wednesday was a joint decision by her and the Missouri Attorney General’s office. She also stated that neither she nor the Attorney General’s office were aware of the bond reduction hearing held on Monday for Daniel Froman.
The new charges essentially make the felony charges against Pauline Froman identical to those filed against her husband, Danny Froman. Each defendant now faces 22 felony counts of stealing/stealing grain and three felony counts of misleading Missouri Department of Agriculture auditors. Previously, Mrs. Froman faced nine felony counts of stealing grain and one of filing false financial statements. Original charges against Mr. Froman were 22 counts of stealing grain and three counts of grain dealer fraud.
To correct last week’s story, the misdemeanor charge for engaging in the business of being a grain dealer without a license was filed against Daniel Froman rather than against his wife.
The news of this action in the Gallatin Grain Company case broke just as this newspaper was going to press last week. To clarify last week’s story, the Fromans were not out on bond, but rather warrants had been issued for their arrests. The $100,000 bond posted for each of them in the original case had not been transferred to the new charges, and at press time no bond had been set.
To recap the case, Danny Froman voluntarily surrendered the Gallatin Grain Company grain warehouse and dealer licenses to state officials in February, 2009. Over 100 claims were filed against Gallatin Grain Company. The total claims were in excess of $4.5 million as announced at an administrative hearing held by the Dept. of Agriculture on May 28, 2009. Storage claims totaled $1,530,488, grain dealer claims totaled $1,799,253, ineligible claims totaled $201,227, and withdrawn claims totaled $1,164,418.91. (Withdrawn claims are those where claimants accepted assets in exchange for their withdrawal from the claim process.)
Farmers with verified claims received about 12 cents on the dollar from the bonds posted with the Department of Agriculture.