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A man sought on an arrest warrant – accused, along with a woman, of keeping five children in soiled diapers in a garbage-filled Woodstock home – was taken into custody Thursday at the McHenry County jail.
Jeremy D. Ruffin Sr., 35, of the 1000 block of Walden Oaks, is charged with five counts of endangering the life or health of a child, Class A misdemeanors. A woman listed in court papers at the same address, Erica Bell, 34, also is charged in connection with the children and their living conditions, according to documents filed in McHenry County court in March.
An arrest warrant was issued for Ruffin when he failed to appear in court in October, records show.
From Aug. 16 through Sept. 14, 2022, Woodstock police said in the criminal complaint, Ruffin “knowingly permitted the health” of five children younger than 18, “to be endangered ... [and] allowed the state of the home to be in disarray in that there was stale food sitting out on the floor and throughout the house producing an odor, the living spaces were cluttered with garbage and household items, the children in the home were found to be kept on the second floor that was gated off by a dog gate and bungee cord, there were holes in the floor caused by [an] uncovered vent system on the second floor, and the children in the home were located on the second floor in soiled diapers, unsupervised.”
Bell initially was charged with the same misdemeanors as Ruffin, but additional, more serious felonies have since been added. She also is charged with criminal abuse or neglect of a person with a disability, a Class 3 felony, as well as reckless conduct and obstructing justice, according to the indictment.
When the children were found, they were about 3, 4, 5, 11 and 14 years old, according to the complaints and indictments.
Police said that between July 1, 2021, and Sept. 14, 2022, Bell failed to properly care for a child with a disability, causing their “preexisting physical condition to deteriorate,” according to the indictment. She is accused of failing to “obtain postoperative care” for the child, which resulted in an injury to his leg, according to the indictment. She also is accused of not taking the child to “multiple doctors appointments and physical therapy post-surgery” after being told to by a doctor. This resulted in “great bodily harm” to the child’s leg, according to the document. The child was 14 at the time.
On Sept. 14, 2022, police said, Bell lied to an officer when she said the child broke his leg that month when, in fact, the indictment said, he broke his leg in 2020. Bell also is accused of lying when she said the child was not in her home but in Alabama when the officer wanted to see him, according to the indictment.
According to the complaint, Bell told the officer that the child had been kidnapped and prevented the officer from entering her home. The pair had lived in the home together for 10 years, and each said they are unemployed, according to affidavits seeking representation by the public defender’s office. Bell is due back in court Dec. 12.