Adults found in Palos apartment had checkered pasts

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Three adults who were found unconscious and a woman who was found dead at a Palos Hills apartment Monday night all have criminal records, with convictions on charges ranging from drug possession, domestic battery and felony retail theft to credit card fraud, court records show.

The mother of two children found unharmed in the apartment also has twice been investigated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for child neglect, and the allegations were substantiated both times, department spokesman Kendall Marlowe said Wednesday.

Palos Hills Deputy Police Chief James Boie said police returned to the apartment, 11195 Roberts Road, on Tuesday night with a search warrant to look for drugs and drug paraphernalia after finding some hypodermic needles there Monday night. He declined to say what, if anything, they found Tuesday.

Police were called to the scene Monday night after a relative went to the apartment because a 6-year-old boy told her on the phone he was hungry and hadn’t been fed.

Police found four adults passed out: Jean Stoffey, 34, who was pronounced dead at Palos Community Hospital at 11:24 p.m. Monday; her sister, Jacqueline Stoffey, 25, who was in intensive care at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn as of Tuesday; their mother, Debra Pietrzyk, 52, and Jacqueline Stoffey’s boyfriend, Justin Benoit, 29, all of the same address, police said.

Pietrzyk and Benoit have been charged with child endangerment, and Jacqueline Stoffey faces similar charges, Boie said. Jacqueline Stoffey’s two sons, ages 5 and 6, were left unattended in the apartment Monday night and now are in the care of a relative, Boie said.

Marlowe said DCFS most recently investigated Jacqueline Stoffey for child neglect last month. The first instance occurred in August 2008.

Officials at Christ Medical Center could not confirm Wednesday whether Jacqueline Stoffey, who is pregnant, was still hospitalized. She was not brought in as a trauma patient.

Boie said police had been to the apartment multiple times in the past for a “myriad of things” but declined to elaborate.

Jean Stoffey had just been paroled from prison Saturday after serving about two months for felony retail theft, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections website.

Her previous record included a 2004 conviction for possession of a controlled substance and a 2008 conviction for credit card fraud, according to court records.

Jacqueline Stoffey was charged with misdemeanor theft and possession of hypodermic needles in 2002 and given three months court supervision; sentenced to two days in jail for marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession in 2003; and charged with battery in 2008, according to court records.

That charge was later dropped. Will County Circuit Court records show Jacqueline Stoffey sought an order of protection against Benoit in April 2008 and also was charged with domestic battery that month and ordered to stay away from Benoit.

Those charges were dropped. She also was charged with felony possession of heroin in 2009 and two counts of felony retail theft in 2010. She pleaded guilty to one retail theft charge and was sentenced to two years probation; the other case is ongoing.

Pietrzyk pleaded guilty to misdemeanor retail theft in 2000, was given six months supervision and community service, skipped her court date and was sentenced to one day in jail, court records show.

Benoit was charged with domestic battery in 2003 and aggravated assault in 2005, but the charges were dropped in both cases, court records show. Benoit was convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery in 2006 and was sentenced to one year of court supervision and required to take anger management classes.