A former board member of the Tennessee Inmate Disciplinary Oversight pleaded guilty to aggravated statutory rape and was sentenced to four years of supervised probation, according to a prosecutor in the case.
Vanessa Murtaugh will also be registered as a sex offender for 14 years, according to District Attorney General Fred Agee, who serves Haywood, Crockett, and Gibson counties.
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Murtaugh’s other restrictions from her guilty plea include:
- State certified alcohol and drug assessment
- State certified psycho-sexual assessment
- Must maintain employment
- No contact with victim or family
- Must pay the court costs
“In all cases, we try to administer justice fairly, and in this case, we did exactly what the victim’s family asked us to do,” Agee told FOX13. “Miss Murtaugh will be under intense supervision for four years and will be on the sex offender registry for 14 years. The sex offender registry controls where you can live, where you can work, and where you can socialize.”
Agee stated that Murtaugh and the victim were acquaintances and that the victim was 17 at the time of the rape.
According to court filings, Murtaugh exploited her position to compel a youngster aged 13 to 18 into performing sexual acts. The event allegedly occurred on January 10. According to the affidavit, she accomplished this by gaining the victim’s trust through her legal, professional, or occupational stature.
In 2023, the state legislature established the Inmate Disciplinary Oversight Board in response to the early release of Cleotha Abston, who served 20 years of a 24-year jail term before reportedly kidnapping and murdering Memphis teacher Eliza Fletcher. The board’s function is to assess a warden’s decision to grant, deny, or remove inmate sentence credits for excellent institutional behavior.
