PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – Former Peoria High School basketball coach Daniel Ruffin appeared at the Peoria County Courthouse Thursday for a pretrial hearing on sexual misconduct charges involving students.
Ruffin’s defense requested to delay both his pretrial and trial. The pretrial is now set for Aug. 6, with the trial scheduled for Aug. 17.
As he left the courtroom, some people in attendance made critical remarks toward Ruffin. One person appeared to be a parent of a child who attended Peoria High School.
Ruffin, 41, faces two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving two students. He was first arrested Feb. 2 after a 16-year-old’s phone allegedly showed inappropriate texts. Days later, a second student came forward with similar allegations.
In the second case, a victim who is now 18 years old but was 17 at the time told officers that Ruffin engaged in sexual acts with her, many of the acts happening in his school office. That victim also shared explicit text messages from Ruffin with police.
Ruffin is currently under GPS monitoring and home confinement with a no-contact order.
(Reporting by Gianna Njau)
Comments