SALT LAKE CITY — A former Tooele County corrections officer will be the one serving 210 days behind bars over kissing and touching that has also resulted in a lawsuit.
Cody Rutledge will serve his time in the Salt Lake County Jail. Then he must serve 36 months of probation, according to records from a sentencing hearing held Tuesday.
Rutledge earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of custodial sexual misconduct — all misdemeanors. Other counts were dropped in exchange for the plea.
The same day Rutledge was sentenced, one of his victims filed suit in federal court in Salt Lake City. It names Rutledge and Tooele County as defendants.
The plaintiff was an inmate at the Tooele County Jail. In her complaint, she alleges that in 2022 and 2023, Rutledge would take her and another inmate to areas of the jail where cameras could not see them.
“Rutledge pulled Plaintiff and another inmate into the property room late at night,” the lawsuit contends in one example. “Rutledge ordered Plaintiff to straddle him and then kissed Plaintiff in front of the other inmate.”
The plaintiff, who FOX 13 News is not naming because she is a victim of sex abuse, alleges that other Tooele County staff became aware of what was happening, but Rutledge was not fired. Instead, he was assigned to a different section of the jail.
But he found ways to continue seeing the woman and “subjected Plaintiff to regular sexual assault” until she was released from jail in April 2023.
The lawsuit seeks damages to be proven in court.
The Tooele County attorney did not return a message seeking comment. An attorney for the plaintiff declined comment due to the pending litigation.