RIP Aime Ruleman's Son
A child died in Franklin County, PA and was not saved by Pennsylvania's child endangerment laws
Aime Ruleman, a newcomer to Franklin County, Pennsylvania left her 4-year-old son’s body on a filthy floor for 24 hours. He weighed 25 pounds. Before his death he was vomiting black and white substances. Ruleman told the dispatcher she found her son kneeling on the floor at about 11 a.m. with his hand resting on a chair, whereupon she went to sleep. She said she assumed the boy was sleeping, but when she checked on him about an hour later, he was unconscious and not breathing. She then changed her story and said she checked on him at 4 p.m.
Doctors in Franklin County knew the family. Multiple appointments were missed, despite records indicating medical staff knew of the nonverbal child’s poor diet. Franklin County has a taxpayer funded Children’s Advocacy Center which apparently never intervened. Nor did its Early Interventions team. The little boy died in early April.
This case hurt me especially since the community never stepped up. Per Law and Crime:
Witness accounts added to concerns about the boy’s condition before his death. A friend who visited the home on Easter Sunday told police the child appeared visibly ill and urged Ruleman to seek medical care, but she did not take him to a hospital, according to York Fox affiliate WPMT.
During interviews, Ruleman allegedly admitted she had missed at least five doctor appointments for her son over the past two years — despite seeking medical care and prescription medications for herself. She also reportedly had no explanation for failing to take him.
Police also found drug paraphernalia in the bathroom, where clothes filled the shower, rendering it unusable.
A neighbor corroborated that account and said Ruleman lived in a “hoarder house.”
A pile of toys, including a small scooter and bike, sat near Ruleman’s front door, but neighbors said they were very rarely used by the 4-year-old boy and had been sitting there for months, if not years.
One of the neighbors, who has a camera in her apartment, said Ruleman would frequently leave her apartment in the middle of the night, sometimes at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.
Ruleman’s teenage daughter, who is 16 or 17 according to neighbors, was often tasked with taking care of the 4-year-old boy, neighbors told PennLive.
The Children’s Advocacy Center for Franklin County has a phone number listed right on its webpage. Why didn’t any neighbor call, if they noticed this boy’s abandoned toys and mother’s nocturnal comings and goings? Why wasn’t baby Ruleman referred immediately to Early Interventions, where he would have been housed and monitored for milestones?
Worse still is the lack of response by Franklin County medical staff, which is mandated under Pennsylvania law. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, report of care dependent individuals, such as children, is governed by PA Sec. 2713.0 under Title 18:
When in the course of conducting any regulatory or investigative responsibility, the Department of Aging, the Department of Health or the Department of Public Welfare has a reasonable cause to believe that a care-dependent person or care-dependent persons residing in a facility have suffered bodily injury or been unlawfully restrained in violation of subsection (a)(1) or (2), a report shall be made immediately to the local law enforcement agency or to the Office of Attorney General.
In the instant case, the 4-year-old Ruleman boy was so severely malnourished he resorted to eating his own clothing. Arguably his living quarters were a facility due to their welfare funding. Ruleman DID attend doctor appointments, where medical staff asked what he ate. Amie Ruleman admitted she only fed the boy chips, cake and chicken nuggets. Ruleman‘s doctors, and Franklin County’s Department of Health and Human Services, also knew the boy was missing prior to his death. Six different pediatric appointments were missed, and the local care team and Early Interventions team did not perform any site visits or phone calls to inquire about the boy.
Franklin County let a little boy starve to death. He was only a child. He did not know what to do other than eat the collar of his shirt.
When I filed a Right-to-Know request for the report number made to the Office of the Attorney General regarding Ruleman’s son, the response came back: we have no such number.
This cold lack of response shook me to my core. So I filed a claim against the Franklin County government with the Office of the Attorney General myself.
If you are perturbed by the little boy’s tragic death, please get to know your local representatives, and remind them of their duties to children. Understanding the Right-to-Know filing process in Pennsylvania is also helpful.
RIP baby Ruleman.