Father gets conditional discharge after being convicted of battery to sons
An Aurora man was sentenced to two years of conditional discharge Friday for attacking his children, including burning one son’s hands after he refused to hit his older, disabled brother.
Ross Hunt, 35, was convicted by a Kane County jury in February of two counts of aggravated battery to a child.
Authorities said in January 2020, the 6-year-old was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, had a shunt in his brain, had to use a walker or other support to walk, and vomited frequently when eating certain foods.
According to an Aurora police report, the younger son said Hunt squeezed the sibling’s shoulders when he vomited and asked him why he could not stop. The younger boy said he was then asked to punch his brother in the head.
When he refused, Hunt took the boy to a bathroom and held his hands under hot water, burning them, according to the police report.
The report said the older boy said when he tried to tell his father’s live-in girlfriend about his brother’s hands being burned, Hunt told him to “shut up” and put his hand over the boy’s mouth.
At the time, Hunt had full custody of both children.
Prosecutors asked Hunt be sent to prison. They cited something the older boy — who died in 2022 — told investigators: that Hunt “was the Big Bad Wolf in that home.”
Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler could have sentenced Hunt to up to five years in prison.
Tegeler said, however, that while out on bond awaiting trial, Hunt has done everything the criminal court, and a family court judge in an abuse and neglect case, has ordered him to do to improve himself and repair the relationship with his surviving son, who is now 11. That included domestic violence counseling, anger management counseling, and stopping the use of drugs and alcohol.
“My job is not just to punish people,” Tegeler said, calling the case a unique situation. He said he couldn’t imagine the stress of caring for a dying child. “I think justice for the victim is to try to reunify (them).”
The boy submitted a letter, read in court, in which he said he was sad about what his father did to his brother, but that he loved him. The boy is in foster care. Hunt has been allowed supervised visits.