For the third time in the last seven years, a Louisiana man has been arrested for allegedly pretending to have special needs in order to trick female home healthcare workers into touching his private parts, Us Weekly confirmed.
Rutledge Deas IV, 35, was arrested on Thursday, January 29, on a single count of human trafficking, according to a statement issued by Louisiana State Police.
He was also arrested in 2019 and 2021 on the exact same allegations, police confirmed.
Deas, who is being held at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center on an unspecified amount of bail, purposely acted like a person with special needs before hiring nannies through online staffing services designed for families of people with special needs.
After hiring the victims, police claim Deas directed them to his residence in Lafayette, where he pretended to be severely disabled and incapable of caring for himself. The nannies were directed to change Deas’ diapers, “treat him like a child,” and clean his private areas, court records confirm.
Deas was first arrested in November 2019, when he posed as his fictitious handicapped brother, “Cory,” to deceive home health care providers into touching and cleaning his private parts during diaper changes, according to the police statement. He was charged with 10 counts each of sexual battery and human trafficking and one count of possession of a controlled substance. More than a year later, he pleaded guilty to the charges and was placed on probation.
In December 2021, Deas was arrested again after sending a text message to a nanny, offering to pay them to change his diapers as part of what he described as an “alternative therapy,” the police statement added. Investigators would later learn he asked the victim to solicit other babysitters to care for him — again, while he posed as a younger man with special needs unable to care for himself, police said.
Detectives were eventually able to collect enough evidence to secure an arrest warrant for Deas, accusing him of human trafficking and one count of attempted human trafficking, it was explained in the statement.
Deas ended up pleading guilty to human trafficking in October 2022 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with nine years of that sentence suspended. He was ordered to serve five years of probation following his release from prison, records confirm.
The statement did not specify a motive for the crime. It was unclear if Deas practiced sexual infantilism or had a diaper fetish. Deas has not been asked yet to plead to this latest human trafficking charge, and his attorney did not respond to a request for comment Monday, February 2.
“The investigation remains ongoing,” reads the police statement, which added it is possible there are more of Deas’ victims out there.
Police ask that those people come forward and speak to the Louisiana State Police Special Victims Unit, which “works to rescue victims and pursue justice in cases involving the exploitation of children and the trafficking of individuals for sex or labor,” reads the statement. “Anyone who believes they may have been a victim of Deas is urged to contact detectives at 504-310-7012.”
