A rural Gurnee couple accused of beating a 6-year-old girl denied the allegations in court Thursday.
On a day that their $500,000 bond was upheld, Jennifer Jordan, 27, and Lee Terry-Hemphill, 20, pleaded not guilty to aggravated battery of a child.
The couple appeared in separate arraignment hearings before Associate Judge Theodore Potkonjak. The Lake County News Sun reported that the couple's attorneys sought reduction of bond, but Potkonjak refused, citing photos that showed the girl's badly bruised legs.
Terry-Hemphill and Jordan were arrested last month after it was reported they took turns hitting the girl with a leather belt, causing extreme bruising.
Prosecutor Bodie Haxall said the girl described repeated beatings and even "daylong beatings because she overslept and missed the bus."
Upon the couple's arrest, he also said Jordan and Terry-Hemphill smoked marijuana in front of the child and then blew the smoke in her face.
Both are due in court again May 5. Trial was set for late May.
