WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A former Purdue University professor was sentenced last week in a domestic violence case.
John Froiland pleaded guilty in May to domestic battery in the presence of a child. On July 14, he was sentenced to six months in community corrections, plus six months of unsupervised probation.
Froiland, who has a Ph.D. in school psychology, was accused of domestic violence against his wife and a 10-year-old boy in their West Lafayette home.
As part of the plea agreement, charges of battery on a person less than 14 years old, confinement, intimidation and interference with reporting of a crime were dismissed.
Investigators with the Tippecanoe Sheriff's Department told 13News that then-48-year-old Froiland angrily confronted his wife when she came home around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 10, 2021. He wanted to know where she had been.
She told investigators that her husband pinned her against a wall.
The boy was allegedly locked inside a dog crate while Froiland broke the wooden leg off a chair and hit his wife repeatedly across her arms, according to police. She suffered welts and bruising.
She reportedly told investigators she was able to free the boy from the dog crate, but Froiland would not let them leave the house. Police said she eventually left with the child, but Froiland allegedly took her cellphone so she could not call for help.
She later called and met with police on Purdue's campus.
His faculty profile, which has since been deleted, listed Froiland as a clinical assistant professor in educational psychology. All that Purdue said at the time of Froiland's arrest was that he was on indefinite paid administrative leave.
Froiland joined the College of Education in 2017. His research included parental involvement in school, teacher-student relationships and positive psychology interventions. Froiland was listed as a Positive Education and Organizational Consultant.
He taught a course called Learning and Motivation.