‘There’s a naked outbreak'
It’s been 52 years since the widespread cultural streaking fad of 1974, and almost two weeks since a nude man was arrested in Putnam County. Friday, it happened again.
“There’s a naked outbreak,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills quipped Friday.
Although the puns were plentiful during his description of the incident, Sills said he was not amused with the situation because both naked offenders are known recidivists and should’ve been behind bars elsewhere in Georgia instead of running around nude in Putnam County.
Recidivists are convicted criminals who repeatedly commit the same crimes. In Georgia, the “three strikes law” requires a judge to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law for a person with three prior felony convictions; the sentence cannot be reduced, and the offender is not eligible for probation or parole.
The jokes stopped when Sills received the criminal history of the man arrested Friday, Bradley Kelly Rutledge II, from the National Crime Information Center.
“Quite candidly, I became alarmed to some extent because, and I shall read directly from NCIC — ‘armed and dangerous, violent tendencies, escape risk’ — that’s the first thing that popped up,” he said. “Now all of this is funny, but when you’ve got a naked man who is armed and dangerous and violent, I’m immediately concerned (about the safety of the people) in that neighborhood where he was prowling around naked and rummaging through people’s property.”
The first call reporting the naked man was on the 200 block of North Steel Bridge Road, where a resident saw him on a neighbor’s boathouse dock. Shortly after that, another call came from a resident on Woodlake Drive, who said “a totally nude man” was across the cove, Sills said.
“It’s a very narrow cove right there on Crooked Creek,” he described. “Deputy Scott Owens responded to the call and saw the man clearly and took a picture of him, apparently trying to hide behind a rock, but he was hiding on the wrong side of the rock.”
Noting the property was undeveloped, Sills said it is a hunting camp. They received access to the property, and a search ensued by Sgt. Jim Barbee and Owens.
“They located him on a dock that belonged to the hunting lease property, but he did not cooperate with them,” Sills said. “Upon being introduced to the potential electrical benefits of a taser, the individual surrendered without further resistance, still naked as a jaybird.
“So, as is our practice, if you get arrested naked, you go to jail naked.”
Sills said Rutledge initially refused to tell them his name, “and he obviously had no wallet or anything on his unclad personage.”
Sills said while Rutledge was being questioned, his behavior was that of someone who was intoxicated, presumably on drugs, since there was no alcohol on his breath.
Rutledge finally told them his name was Brad Renfro and that he was from Chelsea, Alabama.
“I detected that he might not be telling the truth,” Sills said. “So, I asked him what county Chelsea, Alabama was in, and to this, he offered no answer. That’s better than a polygraph test.
“So, I knew he was no more from Chelsea, Alabama, nor was he Brad Renfro any more than he was Santa Claus.”
As they continued investigating his identity, Rutledge “caused a disturbance, beating on the walls of the jail, the doors of the jail, and he ended up having to be restrained,” Sills said.
“I explained to him many of the procedures at Putnam County Jail, and he eventually was fingerprinted without further incident," he added.
The fingerprints were sent to the FBI, and about an hour later, Sills learned Rutledge’s name and that he was last known to be from Senoia in Henry County. This enabled Sills to get the information from NCIC, which included active warrants for Rutledge by the sheriffs of Spalding, Meriwether, and Butts counties, “and that he was on probation in all three counties simultaneously,” Sills said.
He also learned that Rutledge had just been released from Baldwin County Jail nine days earlier on bond for multiple counts of criminal trespass and attempt to commit burglary.
“He was arrested there on Feb. 16th and released on the 18th,” Sills said. “He was gambling about people’s homes and docks down in Baldwin County at all hours of the night; however, he apparently had not begun the practice of disrobement there.”
So, Putnam County Sheriff’s deputies returned the next morning to the North Steel Bridge and Woodlake Drive neighborhoods and went door-to-door talking to residents. Their discoveries included video of Rutledge trying to break into an outbuilding at one residence, and that he had gone into a boathouse with a pontoon boat and got in the boat “buck naked and rummaged through the boat,” Sills said.
There was also a video of him attempting to hook up a trailer to his truck. They later found Rutledge’s Dodge pickup stuck in the mud on a community lot in the subdivision, Sills said. They also learned that he had been living in a camper at Little River Park in Baldwin County.
“There is no explanation as to why this man was naked as he did all this,” Sills said. “Well, let me say this — there is no plausible, rational explanation for it.”
Sills said they also interviewed a family member who said Rutledge had a history of drug use.
“That’s used as an excuse nowadays,” he said. “But people seem to have forgotten that voluntary intoxication, whether it’s drugs or alcohol, is no defense to criminal activity in Georgia law. Then, no one would ever be held accountable. They’re not being held accountable now until they get here in Putnam County. I can prove that by every one of these,” he pointed to the criminal history pages on his desk. “They’re not being held accountable, and the public is perpetually in danger.”
The sheriff said Rutledge’s criminal history included more than one burglary, escape, obstruction, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, stalking, peeping tom, DUI, interference with government property, failure to appear in court, and “probation violation, probation violation, probation violation,” Sills said.
“And this is not in just one county, it’s all over the state – Clarke County, Henry County, Butts County, Meriwether County, and in Alabama," he said.
At Rutledge’s bond hearing Monday, Magistrate Dorothy Adams learned Rutledge’s criminal history, and was told that he was out on bond in Baldwin County from an arrest 10 to 12 days before his arrest in Putnam for similar offenses.
“That last one was the most important thing for me to hear,” Adams said to Rutledge. “The State opposes the bond for you, and I agree. You’ll have to stay here (Putnam County Jail) until you go to court. Because two of these are felonies, you’ll go to superior court, and no, I don’t know when that will be.”