Justin Rushing of Bunnell Accused of Sexually Abusing a Younger Sister Over Several Years

 

Justin rushing, a 22-year-old resident of North Old Dixie Highway in Bunnell, is being held at the Flagler County jail, without bond, on a half dozen charges of lewd and lascivious conduct and child molesting in a case involving a younger sister. The incidents took place over several years, according to Rushing’s arrest report, and involved the girl when she was between 12 and 16, and in other instances, younger than 12.

The victim is older now, but her age is not specified.

The victim told police that the first time anything sexual happened with Rushing, she was 7 or 9. She described several instances of sexual abuse during an interview with a case coordinator with the Child Protective Team, according to the arrest report, “but she had a hard time providing time frames or details of the incidents.” That initial interview took place in February. Two months later, Rushing was interviewed by the Child Protective Team, when an original complaint listing allegations was filed, but Rushing was not arrested at the time.

In his April interview with authorities, Rushing said he’d merely “played doctor” with his younger sister when they were both much younger–he was between 12 and 14, she was between 7 and 9–and that he’d told his mother about it and been punished for it. Rushing told an investigator that he remembered asking his sister to undress for him one time, but that she never did, according to the report filed in mid-April. Rushing at the time told investigators that “all of these incidents happened a long time ago and that he was very sorry that they happened,” the report states. “Justin stated that their home life is very stressful because they do not make much money as a family and their father is very angry.”

Rushing lived in a shed on his parents’ property. When, according to the April report, Rushing’s sister confronted both her father and Justin about the accusations, she told investigators that Justin’s response was: “This is who I am and I cannot control myself,” while her father told her, according to the report, that “the abuse was her fault because Justin was a guy and he had urges and she should have stopped the behavior because she is a girl and girls are supposed to be more mature.”

Rushing was not jailed until Tuesday, subsequent to another charging affidavit.

According to that arrest report, the victim told an assistant state attorney in July that she had recalled “more incidents of abuse and had more details to offer.” On Sept. 10, she provided a recorded statement in which she claimed that Rushing had “sexually abused her on many occasions when she was between the ages of 14 and 16.” Typically, the alleged incidents would take place as Rushing would invite the victim to his room to watch a movie. Rushing would then, according to the report, show the girl drawings of pictures of nude women, or pornography on his computer, he would then begin masturbating and asking the victim to have sex with him.

One count of lewd and lascivious conduct results from an allegation that Rushing allegedly asked the victim, while they were watching a movie, to perform oral sex on him. “Justin told her that it was nothing wrong and it would not be like they were ‘havinbg sex or anything,’ according to the arrest report. Justin then said: ‘All you have to do is suck on mine a little and I’ll play with yours a little. It will feel so good. Trust me you won’t regret it.’” The victim said she told Rushing she did not want to do these acts because she felt they were wrong. She said “she could not explain to Justin why it was wrong but she knew it was wrong.”

The victim, according to the report, told investigators that Rushing “tried to convince her it was okay by telling her that he and their older sister […] had performed sexual acts on each other.” Rushing, after more negotiating, apologized and complied with the victim’s request to start the movie. The victim told investigators that she was about 14 at the time. She described another instance when she was sitting on his bed and he allegedly asked her to let him perform oral sex on her because he was twenty-something and had never seen a woman’s vagina in person. “Do you know how embarrassing that is?” he reportedly asked her. The victim told investigators that he exposed himself before she could protest, they argued further, and she convinced him to cover himself again and let her leave the room.

Another charge is the result of an incident involving Rushing’s alleged attempts to take nude pictures of his sister, after she had agreed to let him take pictures of her clothed. Rushing, according to the report, “bragged that he had photographed their mother in the shower without her knowledge,” that he could “fix” the pictures and upload them to the Internet. At the time, the girl remembered being 15, because, she told investigators, her older sister worked at Pizza Hut—and during those work shifts Rushing became “more aggressive” with her even as she was going to his room nightly to watch movies. She described an incident where Rushing tried to stimulate her sexually with his foot—a situation she described as “creepy”—and another instance, when she was around 12, when her sexually ground his penis against her while both were clothed.

A final charge emanates from an allegation that while both were swimming at their grandmother’s pool, Rushing “slipped his hand into her bathing suit and digitally penetrated her vagina,” according to the report—an incident the victim reported to her mother, who told her that it was “probably an accident.”

Rushing’s Facebook page shows him to be generally jovial, enamored of games, music, good humor, the occasional weapon or paint-ball game, and many other unremarkable fancies of late adolescents or young adults. His Facebook quote is from Proverbs: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all things acknowledge him, and he shall direct your way.”

Rushing is listed as self-employed in his jail booking.