The man charged in the killing of the two-year-old son of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has been ordered to have no unsupervised contact with children or have any contact with the victim’s family.
Joseph Patterson, 28, was released on $2 million bond in September and faces a second-degree murder charge, manslaughter and aggravated assault of Tyrese Ruffin, who was killed on Oct. 11, 2013.
Patterson is accused of “intentionally or recklessly injuring Ruffin by causing brain damage or bleeding of the skull, from blows, shaking or making the boy’s head hit an object or surface.”
The judge declined a Lincoln County state attorney’s request for a GPS monitor on Patterson. Patterson did sign an extradition hearing waiver to ensure he’d be brought back to South Dakota if he were caught elsewhere.
Patterson’s trial has been indefinitely delayed from the scheduled October date.
Peterson is suspended for remainder of the season for child abuse charges against a son in Texas. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault and avoided jail time. He didn’t know Ruffin was his child until two months before he died. According to CBS Minnesota, Peterson went to South Dakota to see Ruffin for the first time the day before he was killed.
Peterson, who has appealed the league’s suspension, attended his son’s funeral in Sioux Falls.
