[ominous music]
♪ ♪
- Everything I thought my life was going to be...
it's nothing like it.
When it comes to my stepfather sexually molesting me,
I still think about it to this day.
♪ ♪
After Justin got arrested,
he was constantly trying to get me to recant...
♪ ♪
And change the story.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
And I got to a point where I was like, I need it to stop.
♪ ♪
- Tyler's young.
He's a teenager.
It was a tremendous amount of stress to put on someone.
- It obviously ate at him,
and I think he carried so much of the weight
of, like, "Well, I'm the reason
"Mom doesn't have the house with the pool.
"I'm the reason Mom doesn't have a husband anymore.
I'm the reason the kids don't know their dad."
♪ ♪
- And it led to Tyler wanting to take his own life.
♪ ♪
- How did knowing this make you feel?
And what was going through your mind as a mother?
STACEY: I think I just thought, like,
everything that Justin took from him.
And then here we are.
You know, he--Tyler doesn't even want to live anymore.
♪ ♪
And I just kept thinking, like, when is it going to end?
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
ANDREA: When Tyler attempts suicide,
he goes into a facility.
And it's there where something changes.
TYLER: I stayed for around a week.
I started working on myself.
- There are times when you really need to stop,
and then you can figure out what to do next.
It's never too late to talk, and it's never too late
for men to take those first steps of recovery.
Ultimately, that's the journey of a trauma survivor.
[soft music]
ANDREA: Tyler going away
really strengthens him.
But after that, there's a trial
where he's going to have to go on the stand
and testify to what happened to him.
But nobody wants that for him,
because he's already carrying so much.
And so ultimately, the DA offers Justin a plea deal.
STACEY: 15 to 30 years for the original charges
of invasion of privacy, rape of a child,
and rape of an unconscious victim.
MEG: My name is Meg McCallum.
I am a supervising assistant district attorney
with the Berks County District Attorney's office
in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Most cases end up in a plea agreement,
but Justin turned it down.
- We thought we were going to go to trial.
MIKAYLA: That's where I was getting annoyed,
because I was like, why do we need to go to trial?
Just save everybody the bullshit,
admit your wrongdoings, and let's move on.
[message dings]
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
STACEY: At that time, Justin's letters to me
kind of started to slack off,
and he stopped asking about Tyler recanting.
- The communication with Stacey basically stops,
but he's writing to Nanny.
And in these letters, he's getting more desperate.
His freedom is in the balance.
♪ ♪
- The detectives called me and said that they had
intercepted letters between Justin and Nanny
where he was asking her to kill Tyler.
MIKE: My name is Mike Fick.
I'm a sergeant with the Berks County
District Attorney's office.
He felt if he could eliminate Tyler,
he wasn't worried about the other victim,
because he felt that that case would not have
been that strong, and then that case would go away.
- I almost just found it humorous.
She's almost 70 years old,
smokes like a damn chimney.
[laughs] Like that's going to happen.
But it did kind of start to not get so funny
when I found out through detectives that those letters
turned into him trying to find somebody to murder me.
MIKE: Detective Weaver and I actually drove to her house
and confronted her about the jailhouse letters.
♪ ♪
She really didn't want to cooperate.
And at that point, I was thinking of
trying to charge her as a co-defendant,
because in the letters, Justin was asking her
to locate someone to have Tyler killed.
And I mentioned that to her,
and then I believe she felt a little different then.
I asked her, "Why wouldn't you go and report that?"
And she said, "Because I know that
I wasn't going to do anything about it."
♪ ♪
- You know, I just pulled one of the letters
that he wrote to Nanny D.
And when you read the severity in which he's writing about
this murder-for-hire plot, it's really serious.
I mean, he writes, "No more fucking around.
"We both tried to avoid this by asking nicely.
"Please just do it.
"I am begging you.
"It needs to be done ASAP.
"It's either you or take a bus and you go
"downtown Martinsburg and look for a druggie.
"Just get it done.
"Offer 5 to 10, pay after, cash.
"It's either that or me.
"And if you don't choose for me,
I'll assume you don't believe me, Nanny."
I mean, he seems really serious about this.
- Mm-hmm.
- You know, when the police came down to tell me that,
I was--I was devastated.
♪ ♪
TOMMY: It became really real that, like,
this dude's actively trying to kill my family.
- You've already taken so much, right?
Like, you stripped his childhood from him.
And now you want to take his life too?
I get being desperate, man, but, like, come on now.
♪ ♪
MIKE: When we got possession of the jailhouse letters,
I wanted to arrest him for that.
At that point, we were told they felt we needed more.
♪ ♪
STACEY: They just kept saying that he was blowing smoke.
That's not blowing smoke, you know, making a plan.
- Specific as shit.
- Specific. - Yeah.
- Right. - That's not blowing smoke.
- We're talking about your son's life.
- Yeah.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Justin had went to his cellmate at the time
and went to him about killing me,
because he was due to get out.
And he told the police.
♪ ♪
MIKAYLA: They asked if they could wire him,
and he said yes.
♪ ♪
And so that's how they got exactly
what he was planning to do.
STACEY: The person was to wait in our driveway.
And when Tyler got off work,
they were to kill him painlessly.
And then he wanted him either buried in a forest
or burned in a barrel.
MIKE: He actually gave details
and had given him a layout of the home and, you know,
explained different scenarios on how to kill him.
You know, make sure that there's no evidence,
and said, "When I get out of here,
I'll make sure that you're comfortable."
He stepped way over that line.
♪ ♪
ANDREA: And that led to additional charges
being filed against Justin
for solicitation to commit murder.
♪ ♪
- A doctor who's in jail is now accused
in a murder-for-hire plot.
REPORTER: Rutherford is now facing criminal solicitation
to commit murder charges.
♪ ♪
MIKAYLA: The problem was because the sexual
and invasion of privacy case was already going on,
they couldn't add the hit-for-hire to that.
That was going to be a whole different charge,
whole different case.
- When the police called me to tell me that
he was being formally charged,
they told me he knew the layout of my house
because of video chatting with the little ones
when he was first in jail.
And I immediately felt guilty.
I thought I was just doing the right thing,
letting my children talk to their father.
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
Even though he was formally charged,
I didn't know if someone else had
taken him seriously inside of there.
TOMMY: That was a little terrifying,
because maybe somebody said, "Yeah, I'll do it for $500,
or I'll do it for free."
There's always that possibility.
And that's what my mindset was pretty much every day.
You start to question almost everybody
that looks a little sketchy.
STACEY: And at that time, I had his gun,
and I kept it on the side of the bed.
I wasn't afraid to shoot to kill
if somebody came in our house, to protect my kids.
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
ANDREA: Initially, Justin turned down the plea deal,
the 15 to 30 years for the invasion of privacy
and sexual assault.
But leading up to trial,
he changes his tune,
and he decides to plead guilty.
[dramatic music]
STACEY: His plea deal dropped a lot
of the invasion of privacy charges.
They kept the sexual abuse of children
and rape of an unconscious person.
I knew there was enough evidence to bury him.
I just didn't know what he was going to get.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- I remember walking into the courtroom,
and I was, like, so ready.
I was, like, maybe we'll get a good judge
who'll just ream his ass.
♪ ♪
LESLIE: At the sentencing, holding in the anger was hard,
but I didn't care about my feelings at that time.
I was just there for support.
- The only person that was there for Justin was Nanny.
♪ ♪
I wrote and rewrote my victim impact statement so many times,
because every time I would write it,
I wouldn't think it was good enough.
[stirring music]
I wanted it perfect.
♪ ♪
"The last two years of our lives have been
a complete nightmare because of you.
"You once held honorable names--
"husband, father, doctor, and friend.
"Now the words to define you are pedophile, monster,
"narcissist, sociopath, and coward.
"You wanted mercy shown to you,
"but how many times did you show him mercy?
"When plotting his death, did you extend mercy to him?
"There are a lot of things that you have taken from us,
"but you will not take the lives
"we still have left to live
"or the plan that God has for our lives,
and you will not take another thing from Tyler."
♪ ♪
- I felt that she was speaking from her heart.
He might have broken the family,
but he did not break her.
[soft music]
MIKAYLA: It was very powerful.
I don't think there was a dry eye in the room.
♪ ♪
TYLER: It was nice.
It was good to see her have her moment.
♪ ♪
STACEY: I had given my victim impact statement,
and the judge had asked if there was anybody else left
that wanted to speak.
MIKAYLA: It was quiet, and we were about to move on.
And then Tyler, like, stood up.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
TYLER: I kept quiet for years.
I didn't want to hurt anybody, especially my mom.
But I just knew if I didn't get
what was on my chest off of my chest,
I'd probably regret it for the rest of my life.
♪ ♪
- Then it was, like, dead silent.
TYLER: It felt like my heart was,
like, racing out of my chest.
But once I got into it, it just came to me.
♪ ♪
I basically just told him I was going to have
that successful life he always worked so hard for.
I was going to be the good father he never was.
STACEY: "I'm going to have the family
that you used to have."
MIKAYLA: "You don't control me anymore.
And what you thought you stole from me, you didn't."
- I'm out here free, and you're the one in chains.
♪ ♪
TYLER: Justin was sexually molesting me for years.
If I didn't do what he wanted, he'd get very angry.
And then I would-- I would give in.
But I showed him who was in charge, and it was me.
♪ ♪
- [exhales sharply]
So proud of him.
- I thought that was incredibly strong and brave.
♪ ♪
And I can't imagine the courage it took
to do something like that.
- I wanted to get up and just start, like...
[clapping] Yay, you!
You know, like, that was fucking awesome!
Like, I was so happy for him.
That's exactly what Tyler needed.
♪ ♪
STACEY: He kept Tyler bound for a really long time.
And I think it was a moment that Tyler finally felt free.
♪ ♪
TYLER: I walked back to my seat,
and I was like, I'm the man.
♪ ♪
MEG: Every defendant has the right
to speak on their own behalf, but I was not aware
that Justin was actually going to speak.
♪ ♪
STACEY: He was able to speak to the judge,
and then he asked to address Tyler.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
TYLER: Justin pulled out a letter,
and the judge stopped him.
And she was like, "Wait, wait, wait."
STACEY: And she kind of said,
"Do you care to hear this from him?"
- Before anyone could really even, like, get a word out,
I, like, just blurted out, like, "Hey, just let him.
Just let him talk."
He explained his love for me very deeply,
and he thought we were basically together.
MIKAYLA: "I loved you.
"I was in love with you.
If I was hurting you, you should have just told me."
The whole time you're sitting there,
you're like, what are you saying?
STACEY: And he told him, "You were the only person
I ever planned on being like that with."
How can you say that you weren't assaulting my child,
but then turn around and say,
"But you were the only person
I had ever planned to be with like that"?
It was like, you just admitted it.
And then he compared their relationship
to Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.
♪ ♪
- What the fuck?
No matter what the circumstances are,
you were the adult in the situation
and should not be in love with a child.
- The whole courtroom, everybody was disgusted.
You could look around and see the face of disgust
on every single person.
♪ ♪
LESLIE: I was ready to jump over the table
and choke him with my own two hands.
- The judge put her hands to her face,
took her glasses off,
just shaking her head back and forth.
[solemn music]
All the policemen just shaking their heads as well.
♪ ♪
It's like this man who was--who was so smart
became one of the stupidest people I've ever met.
- To this day, I still can't understand
why his lawyer allowed that to happen.
But good on him for letting it happen.
♪ ♪
TYLER: It was hard to listen to.
I'm not really a crier,
but, like, that-- that really hit me.
♪ ♪
It was, like, a pissed cry.
Like, it's almost like he isn't even trying to defend himself.
♪ ♪
ANTHONY: These groomers,
no one believes it more than them.
They believe they're doing the right thing.
It is so pathological, which it is,
that we can't apply our regular rules to it.
It doesn't make sense.
[dramatic music]
ANDREA: Before the judge could decide Justin's fate,
both sides could argue what they deem as a fair sentence.
♪ ♪
MEG: I consistently ask for no contact provisions
for any minor child
as part of a sentence for any sex offender.
- She was pushing for the full sentence, 24 to 70 years.
♪ ♪
And then when everything was over,
it took the judge 13 minutes to decide his sentence.
♪ ♪
- Former Berks County doctor has been sentenced
to up to 70 years in prison.
- Investigators say he sexually assaulted two underage victims
and used a hidden camera to record people
in the bathroom of his home in Amity Township.
♪ ♪
STACEY: Justin's sentence was 26 years and 10 months
to 70 years, with 12 years of special probation
after he is released.
And he also is to have no contact with
any of the victims' immediate family members,
which includes his biological children.
♪ ♪
TYLER: I mean, everything they said
in there, it didn't faze him.
He didn't move a muscle.
The second they said, "You'll never see your kids
or talk to your kids again,"
his body language was different.
His face drooped.
- And he, like, you know, fixed himself.
And he was, like, "Your Honor?"
And she said, "Yes?"
And he said,
"But when my kids turn 18, I can talk to them, right?"
And I remember, she took her glasses off,
and she's, like, "Let me make myself clear.
"For as long as you live, and unless you live to be
"over 90-something years old,
you will never speak to your children again."
♪ ♪
- She was pissed.
And she threw the book at him.
♪ ♪
MIKAYLA: The look on his face was, like, fully defeated.
And it was such a good feeling to be like,
"Yeah, the kids are safe."
- Never heard of a pedophile who was cured.
I've heard of a pedophile who no longer perpetrated
because they were separated from kids.
And we have that ability.
♪ ♪
STACEY: He is registered as a sex offender now
on Megan's Law.
And he is the worst level of offender that you can have.
He's deemed a sexually violent predator.
He will be on that list the rest of his life.
- If you want my opinion,
what he deserves is a slow, painful death.
[tense music]
And you know what?
I'm getting a master's degree.
Tyler's doing wonderful in life.
So whatever fucking plan you thought you had,
you didn't get any of us.
And just to let you know, your kids will be
taken care of as long as I'm alive,
so they don't fucking need you.
♪ ♪
- I told everyone after the court hearing was over that
that was my time to start living my life.
The trauma is still obviously a part of me.
I still got to work on myself.
But he's in prison now.
We got our justice.
I'll take that as my win.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
MEG: As a community, it is shocking for people
to believe that a doctor, a stepfather,
a person who we pour our trust in
could do these types of things.
And when things like this come out,
you know, it's scary.
♪ ♪
- People were very upset.
And now, every time, you know, a parent brings their child in
where the doctor was employed at, you know,
that's always going to be in the back of their mind.
Can I trust this person?
- 9 times out of 10, when they say, "Hey..."
in this case, "Justin was abusing Tyler,"
people are like, "He's the last person
I would have thought," you know?
It's always the last person.
Well, then let's kind of rethink this.
The only way we can battle this is
to get people talking about it.
And so the only way we can do that is to break stigma,
which is to do things like this.
We have to realize that it exists.
[tense music]
STACEY: The original hearing for Tyler's case
and the cameras was in May of '23.
♪ ♪
And then the following February of '24
was when we went to court for the murder-for-hire plot.
And he ended up taking a plea deal on that.
♪ ♪
ANDREA: Justin's plea deal was
5 to 10 years to run concurrently
with his existing sentence.
♪ ♪
What Stacey wanted was closure.
And that was good enough for her.
STACEY: We're all playing it safe.
- Fold.
- I don't think I like our dealer.
TYLER: I got the high, so I won.
- Eh, whatever.
TYLER: My money. - Whatever. It's cool.
TOMMY: Loser.
- Did you guys play poker a lot?
MIKAYLA: Like, almost every weekend.
STACEY: Yeah. ANDREA: Every weekend?
Was Tommy always the dealer?
- No, Justin was always our dealer.
TOMMY: Yeah, I don't think we've played
poker together since then.
He took it a lot more seriously.
- What I find remarkable about this family
is their resilience.
I mean, they're able to still do things
that they used to do with Justin
and have a good sense of humor about it.
You know, for as dark as things have been for them,
there's a lot of laughter.
And there's so much love.
It is inspiring.
And, I mean, they are such a great family.
After the sentencing hearing,
what was that experience like for you guys?
- The whole thing just didn't feel real yet.
- Yeah, it felt like we were in, like, a simulation.
It was definitely, like, very detached.
ANDREA: Yeah, did you guys have to leave
the courthouse with Nanny?
- Yeah, and she actually talked to us.
I think she said something along the lines of,
"Justin wrote me a letter,"
and that he had wrote a book of his life story
and explaining everything.
And that if I wanted to read it,
I had to go to her house to read this,
because he didn't want anybody to get their hands on it.
But I never got it from her.
For me, it's just lies.
ANDREA: Was that hard for you guys,
knowing that she was supporting him so blindly?
- Not really. Not to me, at least.
STACEY: Her part of our story is very hard for people
to understand because they don't understand
the dynamic of the relationship between him and her.
This is basically a mother sticking by her son.
- So is Nanny in your life now?
What's the relationship there?
STACEY: Are there things that I don't agree with
that Nanny has done in this situation?
Absolutely.
But she was very much a grandmother figure
in the house for the kids.
She would shank somebody for them.
So she does help me out with watching them
if they are sick
or if she can pick them up at school.
- I think people forget that the littles lost their dad.
STACEY: Oh, they lost everything.
It's hard to verbalize,
but she was a safe space for them
at a point where I couldn't be anybody's safe space.
[solemn music]
So I wanted them to have somebody
that was comfortable-- they were comfortable with
and they felt safe with.
♪ ♪
I'm sorry.
ANDREA: It's OK.
TOMMY: On that note, all in.
- Tommy, Jesus!
[interposing voices]
- 1, 2, 3, 4.
I didn't have a 5, but I had a 6.
♪ ♪
MIKAYLA: I think there's a part of me
that has been hoping that, like, by now,
Mom would be healed.
It's just, like, hard to watch
that she's still, like, suffering
at the hands of this guy.
MIKAYLA:
- I struggle with wishing he would die.
♪ ♪
I want to put my hands around his neck,
and I want to watch him as he drifts into hell.
♪ ♪
And I know that's something that
I have to deal with with God.
[solemn music]
♪ ♪
- I'd like to see her doing better.
♪ ♪
But I think she's--
she's getting to a better place.
ANDREA: You know, the podcast is dedicated
to sharing deceptions and its aftermath,
but then the resilience, you know.
People are strong, and they come out
on the other side of it.
So Stacey's future is bright,
and her family's future is bright.
♪ ♪
STACEY: I'm blessed, and I have a good life,
and I'm thankful every day for what we have.
But there's still a lot of healing that needs to happen.
But it's coming.
- Personally, it took a while for me
to start feeling relief from all of this.
I've learned to kind of be proud of myself
and happy with myself.
But I also want people to know that I'm not perfect.
I wake up most days feeling pretty bad.
One of my biggest problems throughout everything
was anxiety.
I kind of tried to work on that so hard that, like,
I kind of discounted other things.
Like, anger is one of them.
I feel more angry than I used to.
I used to feel more sad.
But there's also that light at the end of the tunnel.
You just got to want it.
You got to work hard.
♪ ♪
STACEY: We were paired with the organization 1in6
through the podcast, and we got to meet Anthony Edwards.
Anthony was assaulted by one of his mentors.
And he paired with this organization
to be a voice for them.
I think it's just an amazing organization that
offers resources for men and boys
who have been sexually assaulted.
- So life's been good?
- Yeah, life's been pretty good the last year, yeah.
Lately, I've really just been trying
to figure out what I like and what I enjoy and who I am.
- Recovery is about recovering that piece of you.
So it's like, yeah, it feels better,
because you get to be more Tyler than ever.
TYLER: I got a good job.
I'm currently working on a personal trainer
certification on the side.
And a lot of people think it's crazy, but I got engaged.
- Congratulations.
That is huge.
TYLER: We love each other,
loyal to each other,
always there for each other.
I mean, it's all I need.
- Your mom approves?
Not that it matters.
- No, no.
Yeah, no, but my mom loves her too, yeah.
- You know, any step that someone takes
in this direction will be a step in the right direction.
I mean, I'm a dad.
I've seen kids grow.
And he has really grown.
- 5, 6, 7 years ago, I would have never
pictured being where I am now.
From the jump, it was, OK, I'm going to keep this in.
No one's ever going to know, the rest of my life.
And, like, once I finally got it out,
I realized it felt freeing to talk about it.
ANTHONY: You being able to tell your story is so exceptional.
I mean, how old were you when you first talked?
You were like--
- 16, 17?
- Yeah, 16, 17.
I mean, that's a time when, you know,
most men are still listening to that, like,
"No, don't show weakness."
You know, I was 52 before I started really looking at it.
- Just because we're men, it doesn't mean we're weak.
We're still strong.
It doesn't mean we're not a man.
- More kids are going to get hurt and stay silent
like I did when people don't share.
So from a lot of survivors in the world that I've met,
I've heard from them, and they're saying,
"Tell Tyler thanks."
It's a real gift you've given to people.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪