Judge issues no-contact order for Round Lake Beach couple charged in 8-year-old’s death

A Round Lake Beach couple charged with the Feb. 6 death of an 8-year-old boy, whose long-term abuse a judge described as “particularly heinous,” appeared in a Lake County court Friday on an emergency motion.

Dominique Servant, 33, and her boyfriend Joey L. Ruffin, 38, are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Servant's son, Markell Pierce, who had been subject to neglect, physical abuse and mental abuse, according to the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force.

Lake County Judge Randie Bruno granted prosecutors’ motion that Pierce’s body be returned to the Lake County coroner to possibly obtain additional forensic information. Bruno ordered Pierce’s body will not be released until further order of the court.

Bruno also ordered that Ruffin and Servant have no direct or third-party contact with two other children in the home: Pierce’s 10-year-old sister who was hospitalized for abuse and malnourishment, and a 3-year-old who was placed in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

The judge also ordered Ruffin have no contact with his three other children.

According to prosecutors, those children did not live in the couple’s Round Lake Beach home, but at least one and possibly all of them may be witnesses at Servant and Ruffin's trial.

“If they are potential witnesses there is a concern, as in any case, with witness tampering, especially with children,” said Bruno as she issued her ruling.

Defense attorneys did not object to prosecutors’ motion.

Ruffin and Servant next appear in court on March 3.