A Peoria County judge has released Daniel C. Ruffin, 41, following the filing of a new case involving allegations from a second student earlier this week. The State had requested that Ruffin be detained, but the court cited his lack of prior criminal convictions and the fact that he is no longer working at a school or as a coach in its decision to release him. He was released with conditions that include GPS electronic monitoring, no contact with the victim, and home confinement.
Ruffin was charged on Tuesday with Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse related to alleged sexual conduct involving a second student. This comes after he was charged last week with Grooming and Indecent Solicitation of a Child in another case involving a different student.
In the latest case, it was found that Ruffin had sexual contact with a student while serving as a coach at Peoria High School. The victim, now 18 years old but 17 at the time of the incidents, reported that Ruffin engaged in sexual acts with her during school hours in his office. Investigators recovered sexually explicit text messages from Ruffin’s phone which confirmed details provided by the victim.
The investigation remains ongoing. Authorities are asking anyone with information about this incident to contact the Peoria Police Department at 309-673-4521.
Peoria High School, where these events reportedly took place, had the highest enrollment of Black students among all schools in Peoria County during the 2022-23 academic year, totaling 798 students according to data from https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Home.aspx. Across Peoria County’s schools during that period, there were 27,081 students enrolled and 1,844 full-time faculty members, resulting in an average student-to-teacher ratio of 15-to-1 (https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Home.aspx). Teacher absenteeism for county schools stood at 32.3%, slightly below Illinois’ statewide average of 35.6% (https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Home.aspx).
