By Jim Hoft

The Rufini family's peaceful life was shattered when a late-night FBI operation saw them hauled at gunpoint from their home and detained in a van while agents combed their house for evidence of what was presumed to be a potential violent plot by their 15-year-old son, who was a volunteer firefighter and an altar boy, American Greatness reported.

Jeremiah Rufini, the father, detailed their plight in a now-unavailable GiveSendGo fundraising page, illustrating the profound impact of this investigation on their family life and finances.

According to the unpublished fundraising page, the Rufinis had been grappling with unexpected legal fees resulting from an "aggressive investigation" into their son, who was convicted on a minor misdemeanor and placed on juvenile probation for breach of peace.

Rufini wrote:

“Our family has unexpectedly incurred very substantial (for us) legal expenses as the result of an aggressive investigation against our fifteen year-old son for posting offensive memes in a private group chat.

“While the investigation resulted in juvenile probation and a minor misdemeanor conviction for breach of peace, our home was raided by the FBI and we were forced to come up with thousands of dollars in non-refundable bail money and legal fees. We are a working class family that lives paycheck-to-paycheck and bankruptcy is a near certainty. It will be a struggle to keep our home without help.”

According to Rufini, the family’s challenges began when their home-schooled son was left to care for his cancer-stricken grandfather. During this period, the boy, lacking a cell phone or unrestricted internet access until then, was given a phone for communication purposes.

The boy’s interest in history and theology led him to online group chats, and he was “recruited” into chat groups “targeting teenage traditionalist Catholics with extreme political content.”