Doctor sued over secret recordings
A former Tower Health doctor accused of sexually abusing two boys over several years in his Amity Township home and recording at least a half-dozen children as they showered or used the bathroom has been sued in Berks County Court by one of the alleged victims and his parents.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are identified only as Jane and John Doe, parents of Minor John Doe. Named as the defendants are Justin S. Rutherford and his wife, Stacey Rutherford.
The suit asserts the Rutherfords failed to take reasonable measures to prevent harm to the boy who was an invited guest and playmate of their son.
The plaintiffs contend Stacey Rutherford was negligent in entrusting supervision of guest children to her husband because she knew or should have known about her husband’s “deviant interests.”
The suit says the plaintiffs
are suffering from physical and emotional distress and loss of earning capacity and will continue to incur expenses for medical and psychiatric treatment. The suit seeks a jury trial and more than $50,000 in punitive and compensatory damages for each of the five counts.
Justin Rutherford, 32, is being held in Berks County Prison in lieu of $5 million bail pending further court action on charges including two counts of rape of a child, child pornography, and seven counts of invasion of privacy and criminal use of a communication facility.
He waived a preliminary hearing Oct. 20 before District Judge Steven M. Chieffo.
Stacey Rutherford issued a statement Thursday night to the Reading Eagle that included: “The events that unfolded this summer were horrible. It is unfathomable what he did but I was in no way a part of these actions. Everyone reports on this story and lumps me in with him and they fail to mention that my children and I were victims also.”
Berks County detectives said they raided the Rutherford home in the 400 block of Pleasant View Drive in August and recovered 2,822 videos and 1,400 images dating to 2018 from the data card of the camera Justin Rutherford used to record guests and family members.
Investigators said they’ve identified six juveniles and two adults who were unknowingly recorded by a recording device that looked like a black cube plugged into an outlet in the bathroom.
One of the two sexually abused teens was also among the victims who was recorded, investigators said.
The suit accuses the couple of negligence and recklessness by not providing adequate warning to Jane and John Doe of Justin Rutherford’s misconduct.
“Defendants caused, created, and/or permitted a dangerous condition at the residence, including, but not limited to, permitting a clearly visible camera and/ or recording device in the bathroom and other areas of the residence,” the suit states.
West Reading-based Tower Health said after Justin Rutherford’s arrest Oct. 2 at Dulles International Airport in Virginia that his employment and medical staff privileges at Tower had been terminated and the hospital system was cooperating with authorities.
Rutherford left the country after Berks detectives and Amity police searched his home Aug. 10 and confiscated numerous electronic devices for examination.
Rutherford was returning from the United Kingdom, apparently unaware there was an active arrest warrant for him, when local authorities detained him at the airport, Chief County Detective Michael J. Gombar said.
The investigation began the previous month after a 13-year-old boy and his mother went to Amity police with the recording device the boy had discovered while showering at Rutherford’s home July 17, investigators said. According to detectives: The boy, who was interviewed in the presence of his mother, said he was using the second-floor bathroom when he noticed a black cube plugged into a wall outlet. He saw a faint blue light illuminated on the corner of the cube.
The boy thought it was a camera and called his mother. He described what he had found and sent her photographs of it.
She conducted some research and concluded the box was likely a camera and told her son to take the device. His friend went to the bathroom and removed the device before the pair immediately left the residence with the device.
On July 27, detectives obtained a search warrant to examine the camera and found the videos dating to 2019 that captured unsuspecting people in various states of undress.
The camera appeared to be motion activated and had the capability of being viewed live through an application and potentially downloaded to a cellphone.
Detectives later found another black cube device inside a nightstand, closest to where the defendant slept.
That led detectives to identify two male teen victims, who disclosed they were sexually abused and assaulted by Rutherford.
One of them, a 17-yearold, said Rutherford gave him marijuana and alcohol and sexually assaulted him after he became intoxicated and fell asleep.
The lead plaintiff attorney, Kristen M. Gibbons Feden of Saltz, Mongeluzzi & Bendesky, Philadelphia, started her career as a prosecutor in Montgomery County and is has made a name for herself as a litgator in the field of sexual abuse and civil rights.
She is best known for her closing argument in comedian Bill Cosby’s second trial, in 2018, that resulted in a guilty verdict that was overturned on appeal. Cosby was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee to whom Cosby had been a mentor, in his Montgomery County home in 14 years earlier.
Justin Rutherford’s attorney of record in the criminal case, Joseph Lesniak of Media, Delaware County, was unavailable Thursday when contacted about the lawsuit. It remained unclear if he has retained a defense lawyer for the civil action.
It was also not immediately known if Stacey Rutherford has retained a lawyer.