Photo by Concord Monitor and Preston Gannaway

A year after their house was condemned and their animals taken from them, the Ruffs' property is still filled with junk cars and debris.

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Drive down West Joppa Road in Warner, and the scene is similar to what you would have seen a year ago. The home of Wendy and Bryon Ruff is surrounded by parked cars, old bicycles and heaps of trash and metal. Animals roam the property. The only obvious change is the 6-foot-high fencing the Ruffs' neighbors have put up.

Last August, town and state officials judged the house unlivable and condemned it, they deemed the animals neglected and seized 57 pets, and they ordered the family to clean up the 5/8-acre yard. In response, the Ruffs fixed up their house, cleared their yard and removed structures that selectmen said spilled onto a neighbor's property.

But in the months since, "it's definitely degraded," said Wayne Eigabroadt, chairman of Warner's board of selectmen and a leader in the cleanup effort last year. "The animals are all building up again. They've got goats and tons of dogs and geese. In my opinion, it's going right back to the way it was, which is what we were afraid of."

Wendy Ruff, who protested when the town stepped in last year, says there's nothing wrong with her property. She wants the police and other authorities to leave her family alone. But Eigabroadt and others in town say the Ruffs' lifestyle threatens the health of their five children and the happiness of their neighbors. In January, Judge Brackett Scheffy of the Henniker District Court found the Ruffs guilty on multiple counts of child endangerment because of conditions inside the home last August.

The judge's sentence in that case included no jail time, but it would have required regular, unannounced inspections from the town's health officer. The Ruffs immediately appealed Scheffy's decision to Merrimack County Superior Court, which put his sentence on hold. Warner's longtime health officer, Charles Durgin, died in March. So far, no one has stepped forward to take his job.

The child endangerment case was not the Ruffs' only brush with the law in the last year. Shortly after the house was condemned, Bryon Ruff was charged with domestic assault for allegedly throwing a telephone at his wife, though the charge was dropped as part of a plea deal. Wendy Ruff was convicted of two misdemeanors on appeal, one for violating a protective order and another for criminal trespass. She was sentenced to six months in jail for the latter charge, but her sentence has been stayed while she appeals to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

Over the past 15 years, there have been more than a dozen charges against the couple, mostly for incidents that happened close to the house. Bryon Ruff spent eight months in jail last year for violating probation, his only jail sentence. Wendy Ruff served 20 days last year for assaulting her mother-in-law, her only jail time to date.

'Deplorable conditions'

The action last summer came after an escalating number of complaints from the Ruffs' neighbors, who were concerned about the condition of the house and animals and about alleged trespassing and vandalism.

One neighbor told the police that the Ruffs' pigs and geese wandered onto her property, where they rooted in her garden. Another complained of slashed tires. One neighbor said she was worried the animals were starving; she would sneak them food when the Ruffs were not home. Another wrote anonymous letters to state officials asking for relief. The letters described the family obstructing the road and pigs walking in and out of the house.

Wendy Ruff described decapitating a boar and hanging its head in a tree after neighbors had complained that the animal was cold one winter.

The neighbors did not want to comment for this story. Last year, many said they feared retribution if they criticized the family.

Last August, a group of town and state officials, including the health officer, the police, the state Division for Children, Youth and Families, four local animal shelters and the state veterinarian entered the house with an administrative search warrant when the family was not home. Inside the house, they found the floor and furniture littered with trash, rotting food and animal feces - and a rooster in the living room. Loose insulation sagged from unfinished walls and ceilings. In the upstairs bedroom where the family's children slept, pornography was tacked on the wall. (next page »)