Hello scamargo,
Thanks for reaching out through the Apple Support Communities about that difficulty with cropping the photo from that contact.
To verify, do you experience the same behavior if you attempt to edit and crop the photo for another contact?
If you take a new photo with your iPhone, and then try that process temporarily using that new photo, do you experience the same behavior?
Also, are you syncing your contacts with multiple email accounts? The “Turn Contacts on or off for an account” section of Manage and delete contacts on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch covers how to check on what accounts are syncing with your contacts.
Hopefully those details will help to further isolate and address this behavior.
Take care.