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

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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 Stacey Rutherford. In season three, Stacey and her son Tyler shared the harrowing story of her husband's sexual abuse of Tyler. It's one of the most chilling cases we've covered. And there have been some recent developments. Here's my conversation with Stacey. We all know everybody who listened to your season that Justin pled guilty not once, but twice to sexual assault of Tyler and another child. He also pled guilty for voyeurism. And eventually, he also pled guilty for a 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 it's gone. No. What's happened? So in August of last year, 2025, 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 forced 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. 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, trying to devise, scheme, come up with any possible way. Yeah, 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 letter on the front of it. 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 present 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 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. So really, did you think the lawsuit was like a cover to get a personal letter to Tyler? Absolutely. All it is is him spiraling and realizing that he no longer has control over Tyler. 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. 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 is is like, there's no way you found God the way that you say you found God, you know, and 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 got bringing up his reputation and his his medical license was stripped and Tyler took all 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. 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. Tyler first was like, I'm just going to ignore it. I don't care. I'm not responding 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, 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 of already. We can't assume that those two branches talk to each other. Right, they don't know that he's sitting in prison for those charges. They don't know the extent of the case. When you first get that paperwork, you have 20 days to respond. So we were scrambling. Right. When we finally obtained a lawyer, I want to say it was a 270 pages that Tyler's lawyer brought in. All the charges, all the sentencing, you know, a transcript of them asking him, do you understand the charges and the sentencing and everything like that? Yeah, they ask you, have you been coerced to take this plea or, right, isn't that part of the questioning? They don't just ask it once. They ask it multiple times throughout that court session of sentencing and everything, you know, did anyone coerce 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. 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? It was months of going back and forth with him filing first, then our lawyer responding. Then they give just in the opportunity to respond to our response. And then they give Tyler's attorney a response to response to his response. I mean, it's just you, it's just all this back and forth. And then the first of the year, the judge said that he was going to make his decision and then let everybody know by the 20th of February. And just last week, the final document was signed for it to be dropped. When you say it was dropped, what do you mean by that? It is dismissed without leave to amend. So what that means is he cannot refile the case against Tyler. 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. 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? What are they going to do? 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. There's no way. I'm not worried about that. 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. It makes it really hard for your son to move on when you don't know when that next letter disguised as a legal document is coming. Tyler said to me after the paperwork came, 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 to other victims is it never really ends. Wow. That's really that's the bottom line. The only good thing in this is when he goes out for parole, so at 27 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. It's an interesting point. Yeah. Definitely. So far, you know, we feel like we had a little bit of victory last week. Tyler and I kind of celebrate it a little bit and we're just hoping that maybe this will shut him up and he'll leave him alone. 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. happen because justice was served. And I think you're in the right. You've done everything that you're supposed to do right. So I hope it doesn't happen again, but I agree with you that it probably will. It probably will. That's okay because we beat it once, we'll beat it again. Guaranteed Human.