Warren couple held in beating of 6-year-old

A Warren Township couple has been ordered held on $500,000 bond after they brutally beat a 6-year-old girl, officials said Monday.

Jennifer Jordan, 27, the mother of the victim, and her live-in boyfriend Lee Terry-Hemphill, 20, were arrested Friday by Lake County sheriff's police.

Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel said police were called to Woodland Elementary School by a counselor who said the girl complained to her that she "hurt all over."

The girl told the counselor, and repeated the statement to a sheriff's investigator, that her parents had beaten her because she was late getting up for school the previous day.

An examination by doctors at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville revealed bruises on her back, buttocks and thighs that appeared to have been made by a belt, Mermel said.

The girl also suffered injuries to her arms that doctors believed had been inflicted as she attempted to defend herself, Mermel said.

Investigators interviewed Jordan and Terry-Hemphill, and Mermel said both admitted striking the girl because she was late and was not paying attention to them.

Police also found a 11/2-inch wide leather belt that had been folded in quarters and wrapped in duct tape in the couple's apartment in the 3400 block of North Almond Road that they believe was used to strike the girl.

Both are charged with aggravated battery to a child, a felony that carries a mandatory prison sentence of six to 30 years in prison upon conviction.

They appeared before Associate Judge Sarah Lessman on Saturday, and were ordered to appear in court April 7.