Petition updatePlease Help: Virginia Refuses to Remove Wrongly Convicted Grandmother from the RegistryPredator Granny Next Door/ More Recollection

Sheri KirbyIndependence, VA, United States

Oct 27, 2025
Predator Granny Next Door is a recollection of
the real-life experience of a woman from Grayson County, Virginia.
Long ago, in the year of 1999, Tammie Rutherford decided to leave her husband of almost twelve years. Tammie was married at the very young age of only 16 and was pregnant with her firstborn child and delivered her firstborn at the age of 16. His name was David Alan. Tammie suffered mental, physical, and sexual abuse during her marriage, which was why she left her husband.
In the years from 1999 until 2000, Tammie was now a single mother of three children, David, Charity, and Daniel. Tammie was striving to do all that she could under very stressful circumstances. Tammie's oldest son Dave became very troubled after the separation of his parents and that ended up with Tammie and her x- husband battling CPS and the juvenile justice system. Tammie's oldest son Dave was unfortunately removed from her custody by the Department of Social Services.
In the late fall of 2000 Tammie became involved in a romantic affair with what would soon be her second husband little did Tammie know that her life of abuse would be worse than her first marriage of almost ten years. Tammie made very poor choices during this time in her life however Tammie continued to work two jobs and maintain her life with a new place to live, Tammie decided to try crack cocaine and that is where Tammie's legal troubles started.
Tammie got a divorce from her first husband and married her second husband while he was in jail after she knew this man had physically and mentally abused her. Tammie continued to work hard. Tammie was still experimenting with drugs that's when Tammie meet what would be husband number three.
The divorce of husband number two happened so quickly that it was almost like magic. Tammie had finally found the love of her life, husband number three who had a new mustang worked forty hours a week, and had a side job hustling methamphetamines which meant plenty of money and he was good to Tammie. This would be the destruction of Tammie. Legal battles lead her to a life with no opportunity to heal, the life of a labeled person or citizen on Virginia's sexual offending registry for a lifetime requirement. A person who was forced to register against her will and for a crime she reported to the Sheriff and the Detective in her hometown.
Doing the right thing... Tammie was an active drug user and had lost custody of her child Dave, she willingly gave her other two children over to her mother to avoid DSS taking custody of them. Tammie caught multiple charges from 2002-2003, most were drug-related except for one charge and that charge was a crime Tammie reported to the police! That's right, Tammie reported a Sex crime to the police.
Tammie's sister was able to gain custody of Tammie's son from DSS, there was a court order stating that Tammie couldn't have any contact with her son because of her drug addiction problem.
Tammie was still working but in active drug addiction. Tammie tried to follow the rules even though her mind was severely affected by her drug addiction problem. Tammie had lost custody of her son Dave to DSS and now her sister.
In early 2003 Tammie's sister begin to suspect that Tammie's son may be having sex with a 26-year-old adult friend that she knew from high school. A friend that she had been allowing to come and pick up the child, keep him overnight, and take him to the movies and even to see his daddy where he was in jail. Tammie's son was only fourteen at the time and Tammie had no custody and no visitation to her own son. Tammie's sister Sheri told Tammie of her suspicions and Tammie acted upon them by confronting the 26-year-old female and her son, the 26-year-old female denied all allegations saying that Tammie's son was like a son to her, like the child that she never had. Tammie's son was angry at Tammie and cussed at her telling her to stay out of his business and that she wasn't his mom and never had been.
Finally, Tammie's sister had enough. She told Tammie "You better do something with him or I'm gonna give him back to DSS". Tammie's son had been very unruly and disobedient while living with Tammie's sister. Tammie's son ran away, broke house arrest, stole money, and worst of all snuck off repeatedly with this 26-year-old female. Tammie decided to talk with the police in hopes of making her son obey her sister's rules, boy what a surprise Tammie would soon find out. The detective and sheriff went and spoke to Tammie's son he admitted he was having sex with the 26-year-old female he was taken back into DSS custody, the 26-year-old female was arrested and admitted she had been having sex with the minor child age 14. Sometime later Tammie and her sister were also charged.
Tammie's crime was not reporting the crime when she first knew about it in March 2003, Tammie was trying to handle it on her own and was in active drug addiction. Neither Tammie nor her sister ever witnessed a sex crime happening. Tammie was the person who reported it in the first place. Tammie's crime has made her a person forced to register on a public sex offending registry for life.as a Violent Sex Offender Registry.
Can you spare a minute of your time to read Tammie’s petition on line www.change.org/helpgrandma
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