The trial for former Peoria High School boys’ basketball coach Daniel Ruffin will be pushed back to August, a two-month delay from its originally scheduled June 1 date.
Ruffin and attorney John Lonergan appeared in Peoria County Circuit Court on Thursday to request the delay, something that Peoria County Assistant State’s Attorney Kristin Alferink supported. As a result, Ruffin’s trial has been delayed until Aug. 17 at 9 a.m.
Ruffin was charged in February with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, indecent solicitation of a child and grooming for a series of alleged inappropriate interactions with a pair of Peoria High students in two separate cases between September 2024 and January 2026.
Prosecutors accused Ruffin in the first case of knowingly soliciting a child with the intent of committing aggravated criminal sexual abuse and knowingly using written communication to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a 16-year-old girl to engage with him in unlawful sexual conduct. In the first case, Ruffin was arrested on Feb. 2 after police and prosecutors accused him of sending inappropriate text messages to the teenager.
In the second case, he was charged on Feb. 9 with aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old girl on multiple occasions in his office at the high school. Ruffin was granted pretrial release in both of those cases, being subject to GPS monitoring and not allowed to have contact with any of the alleged victims.
Ruffin also cannot have any unsupervised contact with minors not in his family and cannot send texts or social media messages to them.
Ruffin was fired from his role as Peoria High’s coach on Feb. 9, after his arrest on the sexual abuse charges. The Peoria Public Schools Board of Education said the firing was made for reasons not related to a reduction in force.
Ruffin is next set for a scheduling conference on Aug. 6 at 1 p.m. prior to his trial.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Sex abuse trial delayed for former Peoria High coach Daniel Ruffin
Reporting by Zach Roth, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
