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Justin S. Rutherford, 33, was charged with rape, sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and more in October 2021 and incarcerated at the Berks County lockup.
But while in police custody, authorities say the former family medicine practitioner was goading an unnamed individual to kill one of his alleged victims, according to charging documents obtained by Daily Voice.
In the criminal complaint, a Berks detective claims Rutherford began trying to solicit the boy's murder beginning around Jan. 5. The investigator wrote that Rutherford wrote down the juvenile's address, his schedule, a description of his car, a list of his interests and hobbies, and other identifying personal details.
Chillingly, authorities said the 33-year-old sketched out a floor plan of the boy's home.
In a secretly recorded conversation, investigators said the doctor took a detail-oriented approach to the alleged plot. Rutherford was heard talking about the victim's parents' schedules, insisting the assassin show up when the boy was home alone, officials charge.
He allegedly urged the would-be hitman to wear gloves, dress in layers, and lay a tarp in the back of his car to prevent leaving behind DNA evidence, the complaint goes on to claim.
Police say he discussed "knocking out" the teen — "it's painless and no evidence" — as well as burying him in the woods or crudely cremating his remains in a barrel.
Rutherford said that when the boy was dead, he would reach out to his lawyer and withdraw his guilty plea in the sexual assault case, according to detectives.
He's been charged with criminal solicitation of first-degree murder, and remains in the Berks County jail in lieu of a $1 million bond, court records show. His next preliminary hearing for the solicitation case is on Feb. 21.
The initial investigation into Rutherford began after Berks authorities received a tip from a child who said he was recorded by a hidden camera while showering at a friend's house, as Daily Voice then reported.
During the probe, authorities spoke to two boys who said they were sexually abused and assaulted by him.
According to his bio on TheLadders and U.S. News & World Report, Rutherford was a family medicine doctor at Tower Health in Reading
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