Update from Season 3 | BONUS | Stacey and Tyler’s Story

Producer Carrie Hartman catches up with Stacey Rutherford from Season 3. Stacey gives an update on Justin’s actions from behind bars.  

Content Warning for sexual abuse.  
 
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hi. I'm Carrie Hartman, a senior producer on Betrayal. If
you've been following the podcast, you know the stories we
tell don't end when the episodes do. People's lives keep
moving forward and sometimes we like to check back in. Recently,
I had the chance to talk with Stacy Rutherford. In
season three, Stacy and her son Tyler shared the harrowing

(00:33):
story of her husband's sexual abuse of Tyler. It's one
of the most chilling cases we've covered, and there's been
some recent developments. Here's my conversation with Stacy. We all know,
everybody who listened to your season that Justin pled guilty
not once, but twice to sexual assault of Tyler and

(00:56):
another child. He also pled guilty for voyeurism, and eventually
he also pled guilty for murder for higher scheme. And
it seems like with that sentence that he received, that
should have been the end of it. You should have
walked out those doors that day. He would do decades
in prison, This would be over. But that's not how

(01:17):
it's gone. No, what's happened.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
So in August of last year, twenty twenty five, Tyler
was served with civil suit. Justin was suing him for
defamation of character. Tyler had called him a child rapist
and a child predator, and Justin's response was that he
was illegally detained, illegally charged, and that he was coursed

(01:43):
into signing the plea deal. So he's not these things
that Tyler is saying he is because he's illegally detained
for these things.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I'm just reminded of your sister after Justin was sentenced.
I'll never forget this. She said, He's going to be
the guy in the law library every single day. Yeah,
trying to devise scheme, come up with any possible way.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I remember her saying, they'll know him well in there.
You know, Justin is his own attorney. He's filing on
behalf of himself. So he was the one that actually
filled out the paperwork, had it delivered to the house,
and it came from Justin, so it did not come
from a lawyer. But he serves him with the lawsuit
papers and then he put a private.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Letter on the front of it.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
And that's what I was really upset about because in
that letter, he asked Tyler to come see him and said,
if you would like to come see me and discuss
this matter in person. I can get you put on
my list in the prison to come talk to me
about this. In his sentence, he was not allowed to
have contact with Tyler. So I immediately called the prison

(03:00):
and said, I have this mail that he contacted Tyler,
and I was told that it is his right to
civilly sue anyone and that basically that did not cross
over because he was acting as his lawyer.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
So, really, did you think the lawsuit was like a
cover to get a personal letter to Tyler?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Absolutely all it is is him spiraling and realizing that
he no longer has control over Tyler.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
At least for me. What really sticks out is there's
absolutely no remorse of any kind. It's almost like he
is doubling down on everything.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, And what I find really comical is the last
time I heard from him was well over a year ago.
He had sent a letter and in the letter he
talked about that he was being baptized on Easter and
that he would really love for me to come and
see him be baptized. And all I can think of

(04:05):
is like, there's no way you found God the way
that you say you found God, you know, and to
be baptized and to repent of your sins, because if
you were truly owning what you did to him, this
lawsuit wouldn't be happening. He kept bringing up his reputation
and his medical license was stripped, and Tyler took all

(04:27):
these things from him, and I'm like, you're so not
remorseful for any of this, because you still are placing
blame on him for you losing these things. You lost
these things because you were a pedophile. You lost these
things because you raped children. So the fact that you
still find blame in a child, there's no remorse.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's infuriating because even though it's like a BS lawsuit
that's completely ridiculous and really doesn't have a basis in fact,
doesn't Tyler still have to respond to it. I mean,
just because you get a lawsuit, you can't just go
I'm not going to respond to that.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Tyler at first was like, dah, I'm just gonna ignore it.
I don't care. I'm not respond to that crap. That's stupid.
And I was like, no, if you don't respond to it, Tyler,
he could potentially win because you don't bring forth any
evidence to prove why you were saying those things. Just
because we know that it's meritless doesn't mean that the
court system knows it is right.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
You can't assume anything. Justin was prosecuted in criminal court,
that's where his entire case was heard, but he filed
a lawsuit going after Tyler for defamation in civil court.
And chances are that the judge deciding the civil case
doesn't know who Justin Rutherford is or what crimes he's
been convicted up already. We can't assume that those two

(05:55):
branches talk to each other.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, They don't know that he sitting in prison for
those charges. They don't know the extent of the case.
When you first get that paperwork, you have twenty days
to respond. So we were scrambling right when we finally
obtained a lawyer. I want to say, it was like
two hundred and seventy pages that Tyler's lawyer brought in
all the charges, all the sentencings. You know, a transcript

(06:22):
of them asking him, do you understand the charges and
the sentencing and everything like that.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, they ask you, have you been coerced to take
this plea or right? Isn't that part of the questioning?

Speaker 3 (06:33):
They don't just ask it once.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
They ask it multiple times throughout that court session of
sentencing and everything. You know, did anyone course you into this?
Have you been explained all your rights? Is there anything
we can explain further to you? Do you have any questions?
It's like over and over and over they make sure
that these people understand right.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
So, from the time that Tyler was first served last summer,
how long did it take for the judge to rule
and what was the ruling?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
It was months of going back and forth with him
filing first, then our lawyer responding. Then they give Justin
the opportunity to respond to our response, and then they
give Tyler's attorney or a response to a response to
his response. I mean, it's it's just all this back
and forth. And then the first of the year, the

(07:23):
judge said that he was going to make his decision
and then let everybody know by the twentieth of February,
And just last.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Week the final document was signed for it to be dropped.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
When you say it was dropped, what do you mean
by that?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
It is dismissed without leave to amend. So what that
means is he cannot refile the case against Tyler.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Do you think that he's going to give up now
and just say, Okay, I got thrown out. I didn't
get anywhere with this. Do you feel like you've hit
the end? No.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
I know enough about him to know that he always
is kind of like trying to be one step ahead
of the game. So I believe the next thing's coming.
I don't think he cares anymore because I think he thinks,
what does he have to lose in there?

Speaker 3 (08:13):
What are they going to do?

Speaker 2 (08:15):
I think he's just throwing things at the wall and
just hoping that something sticks eventually. I'm not concerned at
all that they're going to find some air and that
he was illegally detained and he'll be back out.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
There's no way. I'm not worried about that.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
The only thing I'm concerned with is just that I
just feel like this is just like a crusade for
him to make Tyler pay.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
It makes it really hard for your sun to move
on when you don't know when that next letter disguised
as a legal document is coming.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Tyler said to me after the paperwork came, like, is
this really the rest of my life? Constantly looking over
my shoulder seeing what's he going to do to me next.
And it's frustrating because it's like he can continue to
victimize Tyler from a prison cell. My son will forever
be punished for using his voice. And what we're saying

(09:07):
to other victims is it never really ends.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Wow, that's really that's the bottom line.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
The only good thing in this is when he goes
up for parole, so at twenty seven years or whatever.
The more you do these kinds of things, the less
remorseful you look, and the less likely the parole board
is to grant your parole.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
It's an interesting point.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, definitely so far. You know, we feel like we
had a little bit of victory last week. Tyler and
I kind of celebrated a little bit, and we're just
hoping that maybe this'll shut him up and he'll leave
him alone.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Wow, Stacy, I'm really sorry, but I'm happy that things
worked out the way that they did. And I think
that's what's going to continue to happen because justice was served. Yeah,
and I think you're in the right. You've done everything
that you're supposed to do, right, So I hope it

(10:06):
doesn't happen again, but I agree with you that.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
It probably will. It probably will. That's Okay, Because we
beat it once, we'll beat it again.