Against All Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Example Three

CHARLESTON, MO --53-year-old Roger Dale Rutledge faces three counts of child molestation, and sits in the Mississippi County Jail on $200,000 bond.

It's not just the disturbing charges that have people in Southeast Missouri shaking their heads. It's the fact that the man accused is a district administrator for the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole.

Police say Roger Rutledge was a family friend, of the victims. Investigators won't say much more about the victims other than they are both girls under fourteen years of age.

It's a case that has neighbors more protective than ever towards their children.

Neighbors like Roger Gamble says the news makes him want to keep his grandkids hidden away. "I didn't have any idea, it hits close to home, and they've (my grandkids) they're just close. They've been here before but they've never been out of sight," Gamble says.

"I just told my landlady the other day I feel so safe here," Sister Judith Klump, who lives in the same neighborhood says. She also volunteers at the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Missouri where Rutledge has an office, and she's shocked a prison administrator faces such charges.

Then there is Rutledge's police background. He worked as a patrol officer in many other areas of Missouri before getting to where he is today.

But investigators say you better believe his background isn't going to stop them from getting at the truth. "There very well could be more victims, who haven't come forward yet," Mississippi County Deputy Sheriff Janie McCameron says.

Probation and parole administrators say it's too early to say if they will take any action themselves.

Rutledge will be arraigned in court on Wednesday, November 10, 2004