|
There are currently,
17 guest(s) and
 1 member(s) that are online.
You are a guest. You can register by clicking here. |
|
|
|
|
| Thanks for your support that keeps us online! |
 |
| Donat-o-Meter Stats |
| November´s Goal: |
$100.00 |
| Due Date: |
Nov 30 |
| Amount in: |
$10.00 |
| Balance: |
$9.41 |
| Left to go: |
$90.59 |
| Donations | | | 2much $10 Nov-10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(The Concord Monitor online)
Officials worry the Ruffs are at it again *
By Margot Sanger-Katz, Monitor staff
July 30. 2006 10:00AM
Drive down West Joppa Roadin Warner, and the scene is similar to what you would have seen a year ago. The home of Wendy and Bryon Ruff is surrounded by parked cars, old bicycles and heaps of trash and metal. Animals roam the property. The only obvious change is the 6-foot-high fencing the Ruffs' neighbors have put up.
Last August, town and state officials judged the house unlivable and condemned it, they deemed the animals neglected and seized 57 pets, and they ordered the family to clean up the 5/8-acre yard. In response, the Ruffs fixed up their house, cleared their yard and removed structures that selectmen said spilled onto a neighbor's property....(click "read more" below to continue and take the poll related to this article and/or enter your comments about it)...
But in the months since, "it's definitely degraded," said Wayne Eigabroadt,
chairman of Warner's board of selectmen and a leader in the cleanup effort
last year. "The animals are all building up again. They've got goats and
tons of dogs and geese. In my opinion, it's going right back to the way it
was, which is what we were afraid of."
Wendy Ruff, who protested when the town stepped in last year, says there's
nothing wrong with her property. She wants the police and other authorities
to leave her family alone. But Eigabroadt and others in town say the Ruffs'
lifestyle threatens the health of their five children and the happiness of
their neighbors. In January, Judge Brackett Scheffy of the Henniker District
Court found the Ruffs guilty on multiple counts of child endangerment
because of conditions inside the home last August.
The judge's sentence in that case included no jail time, but it would have
required regular, unannounced inspections from the town's health officer.
The Ruffs immediately appealed Scheffy's decision to Merrimack County
Superior Court, which put his sentence on hold. Warner's longtime health
officer, Charles Durgin, died in March. So far, no one has stepped forward
to take his job.
The child endangerment case was not the Ruffs' only brush with the law in
the last year. Shortly after the house was condemned, Bryon Ruff was charged
with domestic assault for allegedly throwing a telephone at his wife, though
the charge was dropped as part of a plea deal. Wendy Ruff was convicted of
two misdemeanors on appeal, one for violating a protective order and another
for criminal trespass. She was sentenced to six months in jail for the
latter charge, but her sentence has been stayed while she appeals to the New
Hampshire Supreme Court.
Over the past 15 years, there have been more than a dozen charges against
the couple, mostly for incidents that happened close to the house. Bryon
Ruff spent eight months in jail last year for violating probation, his only
jail sentence. Wendy Ruff served 20 days last year for assaulting her
mother-in-law, her only jail time to date.
'Deplorable conditions'
The action last summer came after an escalating number of complaints from
the Ruffs' neighbors, who were concerned about the condition of the house
and animals and about alleged trespassing and vandalism.
One neighbor told the police that the Ruffs' pigs and geese wandered onto
her property, where they rooted in her garden. Another complained of slashed
tires. One neighbor said she was worried the animals were starving; she
would sneak them food when the Ruffs were not home. Another wrote anonymous
letters to state officials asking for relief. The letters described the
family obstructing the road and pigs walking in and out of the house.
Wendy Ruff described decapitating a boar and hanging its head in a tree
after neighbors had complained that the animal was cold one winter.
The neighbors did not want to comment for this story. Last year, many said
they feared retribution if they criticized the family.
Last August, a group of town and state officials, including the health
officer, the police, the state Division for Children, Youth and Families,
four local animal shelters and the state veterinarian entered the house with
an administrative search warrant when the family was not home. Inside the
house, they found the floor and furniture littered with trash, rotting food
and animal feces - and a rooster in the living room. Loose insulation sagged
from unfinished walls and ceilings. In the upstairs bedroom where the
family's children slept, pornography was tacked on the wall.
"These were very deplorable conditions for children to have to live in,"
Durgin said at the time.
Outside, officials found goats, pigs, dogs, cats and fowl wandering the
unfenced yard without food, water or shelter. Those animals shared the yard
with 10 unregistered cars, a camper, a mountain of trash bags and other
debris.
A group of good Samaritans stepped forward to help the Ruffs haul out trash
and fix their home, and the family moved back into a cleaned-up house 10
days later. Durgin said they had done a "fantastic" job, but he planned to
conduct regular inspections to keep the house safe. A few weeks later, the
police charged the couple with criminal child endangerment for the condition
of the house at the time of the inspection.
In the ensuing year, conflict in the neighborhood has not abated, Eigabroadt
said. There have been complaints that the Ruffs are pointing floodlights
into the windows of nearby houses at night, and Wendy Ruff was recently
arrested for allegedly running a neighbor off the road with her car. She was
charged with disorderly conduct, a Class A misdemeanor.
Ruff said the charge doesn't make sense and is likely to be dismissed. She
was arrested two weeks after the date of the alleged incident and said no
police officer was there at the time or even showed up to investigate it
afterward.
"What is disorderly conduct?"she said. "It's being inappropriate in a public
place, not driving a motor vehicle."
Wendy Ruff was also charged with a Class B count of disorderly conduct for
playing loud music on Memorial Day. She said the radio of her son's truck
was playing while it was parked in the yard.
The Warner police did not return repeated calls for this story.
Ruff said she is not bothering the neighbors - they are making trouble for
her and her family. She said she has videotaped one neighbor trespassing on
her property and has installed the outdoor lights so she can see what's
going on when her dogs bark at night. She also said someone vandalized the
family's cars, and she suspects her neighbors.
The animals
In a separate court case this winter, Scheffy granted the state custody of
the Ruffs' seized animals, finding that the family had failed to adequately
care for them. But he did not bar the family from getting new ones. By the
time that decision was issued, the Ruffs had already adopted several
puppies. Since then, the family has acquired more animals.
Dr. Stephen Crawford, the state veterinarian, said his office has been
fielding calls and letters about the Ruffs' animals since January. An
investigator approached the house once but was not able to see much because
the Ruffs would not allow him on the property. The Concord SPCA has also
received a few calls and ordered a few drive-bys, but without a search
warrant, animal welfare agents don't have the authority to search on private
property for signs of neglect.
Wendy Ruff said her pets are well cared for and that there was nothing wrong
with her animals last year, either. She said she thinks neighbors knocked
over water dishes before officials arrived.
Lynne O'Bara, the director of development for the SPCA, said she wouldn't be
surprised if the Ruffs end up with the same number of animals as before and
find themselves unable to care for them.
"That's just their lifestyle, and it's not going to change," she said.
"That's just been our experience here is we have to keep checking on
situations like that. Most of the time, their heart is good and they don't
mean to get into that situation, but that's just their personality."
Crawford also said he's been hearing from neighbors about conditions more
generally - conflict between the Ruffs and neighbors and the overall
condition of the house - which are outside his official purview.
"I actually got another note the other day about this," he said last week.
"And it's a long, four-page e-mail from one of the neighbors, and my
response to that is, I cannot imagine what it is like to live with the
events described in these e-mails, and I'm sympathetic to the situation, but
only a tiny fraction of it is related to the animals."
Eigabroadt said he was frustrated with the backsliding of the Ruff property,
but he said the town feels hamstrung by the appeal.
"There's not much you can do until it's through the appeal court," he said.
"You unfortunately have to take a wait-and-see approach."
But to the Ruffs, the last year has felt full of interventions and meddling
by the town. Wendy Ruff said she thinks the selectmen and neighbors don't
like her, her animals or her children and they're lashing out now that they
were unsuccessful in trying to drive away the family.
"They don't like it that we're still here," she said. "They thought last
year on their crooked stuff that they'd get rid of us. It didn't work, did
it?"
http://tinyurl.com/jauoq
|
|
Posted on Monday, July 31, 2006 @ 22:23:20 ICT by donna
|
|
|
|
| Warner family cited last year for squalid home | Login/Create an Account | 0 comments | | The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
|
|
|
|
|
No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Home(or click site banner)
Your Account
All News/Stories Sent in & To Post Your Comments
Notable Posts
