Rutherford trial begins, teens testify
By Jim Cox Co-Publisher

District Attorney prosecutors say charges against a former Coffeeville High School teacher isn't about the consensual sex she had with legal aged students and others but about her enticement of two juvenile students inside her CHS classroom in March 2006.

Sharon Linton Rutherford, 32, of Thomasville is charged with enticing two underage children for immoral purposes. The boys in question were 14 and 15 when the incidents were supposed to have happened.

Prosecutor Ronnie Keahey told jurors in opening statements that Rutherford was a ninth grade English teacher at Coffeeville High School where she had an affair with a student who was 17 at the time.

Keahey said the two met for sex many times-in a school closet in Rutherford's classroom, in Rutherford's car, at a cemetery and other places. She gave him money or items for sex, Keahey said. When she didn't give him $70 for a new pair of basketball shoes the relationship ended, he said.

Keahey told jurors that Rutherford last March summoned two juvenile students under the age of 16 to her classroom via e-mail or Yahoo, an Internet messenger for sexual reasons.

"She enticed, requested, asked for, sought...[them] to come to her classroom for immoral purposes and that can't be tolerated in our schools," he said.

Fellow prosecutor Joe Thompson would later explain to jurors that any touching, fondling or other sexual contact was irrelevant.

"It is undisputed that she invited them into her classroom. We believe she invited them in there for immoral purposes. She's not on trial for touching them but for inviting them into that room for immoral purposes."

Defense attorney Richard D. Jensen in his opening remarks to the jury agreed that Rutherford had an affair with a man of legal age and that was wrong. She was married and had two beautiful children, he said. But her husband, James Rutherford, was a football coach and was gone a lot. She met the man in question, "a charming, good looking black man," and an affair resulted.

"....that's not illegal. Was it wrong? Yes, She was married and a teacher...we aren't here to try morality. We are here to try the law," he said.

Jensen claimed that the man extorted money and more from Rutherford.

Last year when the student was getting ready to graduate he got into trouble, being accused of beating up and throwing young students into a trash dumpster. When he was confronted Jensen said he said, "You can't expel me, I've been a victim of sexual abuse by a teacher."

The juveniles, as well as a brother of the student, agreed to cover for him and backed his story.

That led to a police investigation and more. Jensen said Rutherford was the victim of an "old cop thing," saying, "If I did [touch one of the juveniles sexually], I certainly didn't mean it" and "that becomes a confession."

Jensen said there are other forces at work in Clarke County, "than some out of control teacher." He alluded to but did not specify a cover up or wrongdoing by the school system and/or its employees.

"Should you be mad at her as a teacher?" Jensen asked. Yes. "How dare Sharon Rutherford breach that trust"... "Should she have been fired? You betcha."

He concluded in his opening statement that his client may have done wrong things but isn't guilty of illegal enticement of juveniles.

The former student with whom she had an affair testified first. How did it start, Keahey asked. "She was coming on to me," he explained.

The sex continued every day in various locations as Keahey had described in his opening statement, the man said. He frequently grinned as he described some of the details.

Keahey asked how many times they had sex. "Several," he answered. Pressed to be more specific he responded, "About a hundred."

Keahey asked if he did it for money.

"I ain't asked her for no money for sex," he replied.

Why were you having sex, Keahey asked? "She asked me," he answered.

Did you care for her, Keahey asked? He responded, "She had a husband and two kids."

Why did they break up? "She was trying to get me expelled and I got somebody else," he said.

He testified as to others who were going with her but denied that the breakup was because she did not buy him the $70 tennis shoes previously mentioned by both Keahey and Jensen.

When asked about the breakup, he started to partially answer that when things "got serious...[about] murder...." That prompted Jensen to immediately ask for a motion to be considered outside of the jury's presence.

Rutherford is also charged with soliciting the murder of her husband but she is not being tried for that now.

Later, when testimony resumed, both the defense and prosecution agreed, "[we're] not going into that area."

Keahey introduced numerous pieces of poetry that he said Rutherford gave the student. Jensen pointed out that most were love poems, in his effort to say this was a genuine love affair.

But the teen testified otherwise. Was Rutherford in love with him? "I reckon." Was he with her? "It was just there, I'm a man," he said, grinning.

There was other testimony Tuesday about Rutherford's sexual relations with others.

One student testified that he saw her fondling one of the juvenile students she is accused of enticing in her classroom during a planning period.

Jurors heard a taped interview with investigators but it was barely audible. Jurors were given transcripts but they had to be taken up at one point because of some reportedly erroneous content.

On the tape, Rutherford acknowledged, "I involved myself in a situation that I shouldn't have," later adding, "I love him...I don't know why I did it."

Testimony continued in the case Wednesday.

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