When doctors at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital diagnosed 3-month-old Quincy as a victim of child abuse, the press ran with the story. Medical imaging had revealed 17 fractures to the boy’s tiny bones, and police were targeting his father, Zachary Culp, who worked in the school cafeteria. The community understood that an accused child abuser had been in regular contact with its children.
The day of his arrest, while Zachary waited for processing with other prisoners in the holding tank, a breaking-news bulletin interrupted normal programming on the wall-mounted television to announce the development. His face loomed on the screen.
The first assault came just a few hours later, and the guards were in no hurry to stop the violence. “They beat the crap out of me,” Zachary recalls. “I didn’t think I was going to live the next 72 hours.”
He credits his survival to his uncle, a police detective who’d offered him a set of jailhouse tips before his arrest. When assaulted, Zachary says, he was told to “assume the fetal position, like you’re getting ready for a hurricane.” Zachary lost 48 pounds during the 73 days he spent in jail, he reports, but he did survive.
A year later, he was back with his wife Sarah and their son Quincy, after a series of legal and medical developments including Sarah’s diagnosis with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a genetic condition that would explain the fractures in her son.
“That was all Sarah,” Zachary says. “She has phenomenal research skills.”
Sarah had started by searching on traits they’d noticed about Quincy since birth: easy bruising, blue sclera, lots of spitting up, with slow weight gain—the last diagnosed in Quincy as “failure to thrive.” She found the story of Rebecca Wanosik, a wrongly accused parent who helped form Fractured Families, a support group for families accused of abuse based on a medical misdiagnosis. She learned about EDS and Dr. Michael Hollick in Boston.
Zachary was out on bail by then, but because of a “no-contact” order against him, Sarah took Quincy by herself to Boston for their first consultation.
“Dr. Holick saved our son’s life,” Zachary maintains. At that point, Quincy was so small he had “fallen off the growth charts,” he explains. “He was barely making it. We were desperate for help.”
EDS can’t be confirmed in an infant, but Dr. Holick diagnosed Sarah with EDS and found early signs in Quincy. He also gave Sarah the first useful advice she’d gotten about Quincy’s diet, and her baby started gaining weight. Now 5 years old, Quincy has been diagnosed definitively with Stickler’s Syndrome, another auto-immune condition.
Immediately after his family’s legal ordeal, Zachary Culp became an activist in the arena. A seriously effective activist.
In 2021, only three years after his arrest, Zachary had ushered “Quincy’s Law” through both his state senate and the house: Families accused of abuse in Arkansas based on a medical diagnosis now have the right to a second opinion—like the opinion that finally got Quincy’s health on track.
Zachary based Quincy’s Law (now Act Number 976) on legislation crafted and tweaked by family activists in Texas. He offers advice and a template to families interested in pushing for similar laws in their own states.
Zachary says his political strategy was to approach elected officials personally, “one relationship at a time.” He started with the legislators closest to him, in Pulaski County. He tried to find common ground, ways that he could support their own efforts, with letters or phone calls or outreach. “I like to see what they want to talk about first, before I push my own agenda,” he explains.
He worked his way out in wider geographical circles and up the hierarchy, routinely driving to the state capitol in Little Rock on his days off. He networked with other Arkansas families who had experienced a medical misdiagnosis of abuse.
Zachary recognizes Child Abuse Awareness Month most years—not this year, because a tornado had just ploughed through his part of Arkansas—by taking out an ad in the local newspaper, looking for other accused families.
He and Sarah offer advice and support to the newly accused, who find him through the ads or on Facebook. He’s keeping track of disputed diagnoses by Dr. Karen Farst, the child abuse pediatrician who diagnosed abuse in Quincy’s case.
Last year, he made his first shot at his own seat in the legislature. He lost, but that’s the norm for a first-time candidate. He’s not giving up.
These days, Zachary’s social media feed offers dispatches from EDS and innocence activists, in between celebrations of his family and his church community.
Whatever he does next, Zachary Culp has already proven that one person can make a difference.
Links:
- Quincy’s Law
- Trial coverage
- Plea coverage
- The story of SB1578 in Texas
copyright 2023 Sue Luttner
If you are not familiar with the debate surrounding shaken baby syndrome, please see the home page of this blog.
On Shaken Baby 
Good evening,
My son and girlfriend are experiencing the same thing in Tennessee (TN). Their then 5 week old went to the ER with a broken femur and it was later discovered he had multiple broken bones in various stages of healing. Their child was taken and it’s been a 2 yr battle to get him back. We too found the amazing Dr. Holick and have been evaluated. We ended up getting a court order to have the guardian take their child to get the physical examination done. At first their PD didn’t want to use the report but now he’s trying to get the DA to do something. There’s so much more to this story and not enough space here to tell it. I can’t tell you how good and sad it is to know we’re not alone is this fight but getting to the right resources has been difficult.
We would like to get similar legislation passed in Tennessee so no other families have to deal with this. They have since moved to Illinois and have to travel to TN for court hearings. Can you point us in the right direction?
Paula
Dear Paula,
Thank you for reaching out. Please accept my condolences on the tragedy that has visited your family.
I trust you’ve found the Fractured Families web site: https://www.fractured-families.org/home Some of the same people who founded that group helped develop the Texas legislation that Zackary used as the basis of his bill in Arkansas.
The Family Justice Resource Center in Illinois has a bill going, but it’s within their state:
• about their bill – https://www.famjustice.org/protecting-innocent-families-act
• volunteer sign-up form – https://www.famjustice.org/protecting-innocent-families-act
Have you found an on-line support group? There are a handful—Fractured Families seems an obvious match for you, if you’re interested.
Congratulations on achieving so much. I trust your attorney has found the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences They maintain a list serve and resource library about shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma, but there’s a lot on there about fractures as well. If your attorney isn’t already in touch with them, here’s their contact page: https://cifsjustice.org/contact-us/
My best wishes to all.
-Sue
Excellent story and column, Sue. Thank you. Kathy Vaughan Ellwood
Thank you, Kathy.
Great job, Zachary! Attempting the same in Ontario now.
Thanks so much for sharing this powerful story. Zachary’s persistence and strength in this fight is an obvious indicator of God’s hand on him. I pray he will receive great victories that will overflow to bless many other families currently suffering.
Hi Sue,
So glad you are persisting. The task requires many people with dedication to exposing facts. You are among those most effectively doing so!
I am grateful to you.
Be well,
Ed Willey
Thank you, Dr. Willey, for your support, and for your own work in the arena. I am grateful to you.
-Sue
Sue,
Again I am so blown away by your advocacy for those unjustly victimized by a system primarily tasked to protect them.
To be accused of neglect and forcibly removed from the very beings one is soul tasked to protect above all else, is in itself such an injury that seers to light the distenigratiom of societies collective advancement to an insanely weaponized, uninformed industry of medical doomsday reactionist’s whom refuse to open their minds beyond the decades old diplomas hanging on their walls. We are in dire need of regulations to curb the true injuries, those perpetrated by the hands of those whom remain illiterate in the medical advances related to Shaken Baby Syndrome and the tragic victimization and devastation to an entire family unit. Second opinions are indeed warranted in all cases until the shift occurs in general knowledge within the medical and governing authorities that there are potential actual medical diagnosis that could account for these babies injuries.
How is it we can watch nightly the tragedy of how disenfranchised groups are treated in this country by those in power and not hear equally how this same misguided system is ripping apart families in their most vulnerable moments? It is appalling what occurred to this family and but for grace could have been any of our children’s reality.
Grateful for your voice advocating for these individuals and their families. Truly advocating for all of us to be better informed.
Vicky
Sent from my iPhone
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Thank you, Vicky, for your support, and for your further thoughts. It’s a tragic arena. -Sue