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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — No natural light makes its way into Jane’s Little Coalinga, a dive bar and grill on Indiana Ave. The glass door is blacked out and the blinds are drawn. Dartboards line the back of the dark barroom. Neon signs hang in the window, highlighting every drink from Maker’s Mark to Miller Lite. At the center is a bright, buzzing invitation for rough-and-tumble travelers: It reads: BIKERS WELCOME.
Inside, two yellowing newspaper headlines appear behind the bar. One shouts, “CAN’T FIX STUPID.” The other says, “STRAIGHT WHISKEY KILLS FLU VIRUS.”
Heads turned on Oct. 10 when Minnesota Vikings tailback Adrian Peterson, the NFL’s reigning MVP, entered the watering hole for lunch on a workday. Soon after he ordered the Thursday special (hot turkey sandwich for $ 5.50 and a half sandwich for $ 3.75), word of his whereabouts spread on Twitter. In the hours afterward, it was revealed that Peterson was the father of Tyrese Robert Ruffin, a 2-year-old boy battling on life support at the Sanford USD Medical Center after allegedly being beaten by Joey Patterson, the boyfriend of Ruffin’s mother. Peterson was excused from Vikings practice for the day, and met the boy for the first time at the hospital. He returned to Minneapolis for the next morning’s practice session. While Peterson prepared for a game, Ruffin was taken off life support. Ruffin died at 11:43 a.m.
“The focus got pushed to Peterson, but a beautiful child is dead,” says Patterson’s father, Grant. “There’s a double tragedy in this case. My son’s heart bleeds for the child. I pray there is no rush to judgment.”
Peterson played in last Sunday’s loss to the Carolina Panthers in front of fans holding signs that read “Stay Strong Adrian.” Condolences came from players and coaches across the league, but Joey Patterson, a former high school football and track standout from Kadoka, a tiny town of farmers and ranchers, stood accused of aggravated assault. He was also charged with aggravated assault on a child. The felonies carry sentencing terms of up to 40 years if he is convicted, and State’s Attorney Thomas Wollman is expected to elevate the allegations to homicide in light of Ruffin’s death as early as Monday when a grand jury is scheduled to convene. That night, Peterson will suit up in road whites for the Vikings against the Giants at MetLife Stadium. Patterson will sleep on his single bunk in a 6-by-9 cell at the Minnehaha County Jail.
keloland.com
Joey Patterson is charged in the assault that results in the death of Adrian Peterson’s son.
“There are death threats against my son,” Patterson’s father says. “He’s moving into a pissed-off stage now. He’s getting bitter.”
Paternal uncertainty complicated matters as news of the death spread. Patterson was the only person in apartment No. 118 at 6201 Connie Ave. with the toddler at the time of his head injuries. Patterson called 911 and told police Ruffin was choking, but Ruffin was unresponsive. EMS workers and doctors determined Ruffin’s head injuries were consistent with abuse when he was examined at the hospital, and Patterson was arrested after questioning. A third man, Bobby Ruffin, the baby’s namesake, expressed exasperation at Peterson, the unmarried father of a 6-year-old daughter and at least one other boy, Adrian Jr., also 2 years old, being viewed as a central figure. On Facebook, he claimed to have been in the room when the decision to end life support was made.
“It’s devastating,” said Peterson, who learned that he was the father two months ago and started supporting the mother financially. “A lot of people won’t ever understand the situation that I’m in and see it the way I’m seeing the situation.”
Family and community members came together the night the toddler died. They prayed with arms extended at Sertoma Park during a candlelight vigil in his memory. One blonde-haired boy wore a purple No. 28 Adrian Peterson jersey under his jacket as he held his candle high. Attendees sang church hymns and prayed for Ruffin’s parents.
He will wash away my sin,
Jay Pickthorn /New York Daily News
Apartment 118 in the Platinum Valley apartment complex at 6201 South Connie Ave. in Sioux Falls, S.D. is where Joey Patterson allegedly beat to death 2-year-old Tyrese Robert Ruffin, the son of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.
Let His little child come in
The story of loss dovetailed with the narrative of previous tragedies in Peterson’s life. As a 7-year-old, he watched his older brother die in a bike accident when he was hit by a drunken driver. His father was imprisoned for drug dealing during Peterson’s teenage years. Shortly before the Vikings drafted Peterson in 2007, a half-brother was shot and killed. He insisted the pain inspires him.
“I don’t see myself going downhill,” Peterson said. “I see myself improving from this.”
Peterson’s appearance in Sioux Falls remains the talk of the bar. On Wednesday, the day of the boy’s funeral, laborers discuss betting lines and fantasy football lineups over beers. A construction worker in a neon yellow sweatshirt asks the bartenders if they were around for the Viking’s arrival. Jean, the blonde-haired barkeep with a tattered American flag tattoo on her forearm, acknowledges that she was. She slides a photograph of her and Peterson posing for a camera outside the door, in the daylight, across the bar top. Another copy has already been framed and hung on the wall across the way.
“That’s pretty big for a bar,” the worker said. “Woulda been nice to get an autograph on that.”
Jay Pickthorn /New York Daily News
Adrian Peterson left a lasting impression when he stopped by Jane’s Little Coalinga Bar and Grill on 114 N. Indiana Ave. in Sioux Falls, S.D., a city rocked by the violent death of the Viking running back’s 2-year-old son, a boy he just found out was his child about two months ago.
“I didn’t have a clue it was him until we were introduced,” she says, flipping burgers on the grill. “I’m not a Vikings fan.”
* * *
Trouble related to Joey Patterson traces 250 miles west to his hometown of Kadoka, S.D., known to pioneers and passersby as The Gateway to the Badlands. Blessed with what Kadoka High seniors voted to be the “Best Smile” and “Best Hair” in the class of 2004, Patterson attracted young women as a three-sport prep star in a prairie town of just over 700 residents. For some time, Patterson trained his attention on Carlie Rae Uhlir, a girl two grades behind him, talking sports and school with her. They dated until May of 2004. It was then, after a track meet, that Uhlir’s mother, Noell, filed a petition and affidavit for a protection order against stalking or from physical injury. Noell noted that her daughter had informed Patterson that she didn’t think their relationship was going to work. According to the affidavit, Joey grew upset and bit Carlie Rae on the upper arm.
Noell maintained that Patterson had access to weapons. She considered Patterson a weapon himself, and requested that he not be allowed to call Carlie Rae, message her on the Internet or follow her in person. No contact. No letters. No gifts. Patterson countered that Carlie Rae kept up contact with him despite her mother’s wishes against it, offering authorities a letter from Carlie Rae expressing regret for the order.
“I believe that Joey is mentally unstable, and it is only a matter of time before he harms himself, my daughter or anyone that may step in,” the mother wrote on the petition. “Joey needs professional help.”
Jay Pickthorn/AP
Vanja Srdie shares a memory about Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson’s 2-year-old son during a candlelight vigil at Sertoma Park in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Friday, Oct. 11, 2013.
Evidence in support of her motion included letters from Patterson to Carlie Rae. He addressed her as “lover,” “momma,” and “my life.” He was apologetic at times and apoplectic others. He signed them as “From the one you seriously hate” and “Daddy.” In between the lines on the paper, his messages grew more chilling as she did not respond.
“I don’t know any other way to make myself stop feeling this way except killing myself,” he wrote, “All I think about is you.”
Patterson was ordered to keep 100 feet away from Carlie Rae, but the pattern of abuse continued over nearly the last decade. He was indicted in June of 2012 on several counts of simple assault involving another woman, the mother of his child and her 3-year-old son. He was later charged with violating a no-contact order. He was sentenced to one year in jail for both cases, but that time was suspended on the condition he attend domestic violence counseling.
The victim in that case — not the mother of Tyrese Robert Ruffin — wrote in a request for a protection order that Patterson had slapped her 3-year-old on his bare buttocks so hard for misbehaving in church that the boy needed ice for welts Patterson left on the boy. When the mother got angry with Patterson for it, he made the children go to their rooms, then pulled down the shades, grabbed her by the throat and waved his fist in her face. He stopped when their infant son cried in his crib.
“He has (threatened) to kill me multiple times,” she wrote.
Jay Pickthorn /New York Daily News
The namesake falls along the Big Sioux River in this South Dakota town.
Back in Kadoka, Patterson’s family resides in a single-story house on a dirt road with a sign that reads, “Yankees fans live here.” Friends have kept quiet as the onetime sports star’s accomplishments, ranging from record-setting long jumps to all-state football honors, live on in the yearbook at the library on Main St. Across the way, the Kadoka Press, the newspaper of record in Jackson County, refuses to write the next chapter. It will not chronicle Patterson’s case, citing the town’s interests as being too intertwined.
“Too many emotions,” an employee said.
* * *
The Compass Center, a non-profit organization established to break the cycle of sexual and domestic violence, sits in the back of a single-story building attached to a U.S. Bank. All visitors are greeted by a sign on the outer wall with two olive branches. When they walk up the steps to the glass door there is a warning. It features the image of a gun and a knife followed by, “ALL WEAPONS ARE PROHIBITED ON PREMISES.”
Patterson was ordered by the court last October to participate in the center’s 25-week program. He was assessed as others are by examining his police record and undergoing a domestic violence inventory. The mission of the program is to work on issues of power and control over a loved one, be it partner or child, and to teach equality of working in a relationship. He was not near completing the program last Wednesday when he called 911 to report the toddler’s medical emergency.
Adrian Peterson tweets his thanks for support on Oct. 11, 2013 after his 2-year-old son was killed.
“Truly saddened,” says Patty Brooks, a survivor of domestic violence and the center’s executive director. “Could we have seen any red flags? I truly believe there wasn’t in this particular case.”
October is domestic violence awareness month in Sioux Falls and across the country. Last Thursday, at the Old Courthouse Museum downtown, the Minnehaha County Family Violence Council sponsored “Take Back the Night,” an annual event used to raise public awareness of domestic abuse and sexual assault. There was a soup and pie dinner, along with two speakers who are survivors of domestic abuse, as well as a candlelight march outdoors. Brooks thought it odd that Wollman, the State’s Attorney, was not in attendance, but recognized the reason for his absence when she read about Patterson’s charges in the newspaper. It was at least the third death of a toddler at the hands of a caregiver or the boyfriend of a mother in South Dakota this year.
“Sadly enough, it makes the issue hit home, makes it real,” Brooks says, “This is South Dakota, and it’s happening right in our backyard. We can’t pretend that we’re a small rural state and this issue doesn’t exist. We need to keep our eyes open, be aware.”
Wollman says the “crime du jour” in the state is casino robberies and the local vice is “garage hopping,” typically teenagers breaking into cars of residents who keep their garage doors open at night, but he is now weighing murder charges for Patterson. Wollman keeps case folders on a round table in his second-floor office. Two are filled with motions, filings and updates from Patterson’s past criminal cases. The latest, a thin purple folder, contains evidence from the ongoing investigation. He did not know who Adrian Peterson was before the investigation commenced.
“We will handle this case and give it due attention as we would any homicide case,” Wollman says. “The outside attention isn’t necessarily something we’re concerned with.”
Ann Heisenfelt/AP
Adrian Peterson returns to action just two days after learning of the death of his 2-year-old son.
The Sioux Falls police department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit continues to collect evidence, and an autopsy was performed on Ruffin by the state’s medical examiner in Rapid City on Monday. A death certificate is expected to be made public in the next 30 days, and a grand jury could indict Patterson any time. A source close to the investigation says the death was not a case of Patterson shaking the baby.
No matter the charge, Patterson will wear black-and-white stripes on a state-issued jumpsuit inside the Minnehaha County Jail for the foreseeable future. He wakes up each morning at 6:30, eats three hot meals a day and partakes in recreational activities for an hour. There are no outdoor activities, and visitors are limited. Lockdown comes at 9:45 p.m.
“Joey’s life is basically ruined,” Patterson’s father says as he cries. “It will never be undone.”
During his last appearance in court, Patterson, wearing handcuffs and sandals, looked away from cameras, burying his chin in his chest. He did not have to enter a plea, and bond was set at $ 750,000 cash. Almost a decade removed from his first brush with the law, the precocious boy voted to have the best smile and best hair in high school looked like a different man. His hair was cropped tight in a crew-cut style.
The smile was gone.
