Stockton teacher sentenced to life in prison for incest, longtime sex abuse

A Stockton special education teacher has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually abusing minors, including his own children, for nearly 20 years.

Rodney Flucas, 50, was given a life sentence Tuesday for transporting minors with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Flucas also was sentenced to 10 years for transporting his daughter across state lines to engage in incest and 20 years for attempted witness tampering, according to a news release by the U.S. attorney’s office.

Flucas abused four of his daughters, a son and two other young women, beginning when they were minors, and faced allegations that he impregnated two of his daughters and one of his daughter’s friends, court documents show. DNA tests confirmed that he is the father of 10 children born to his victims, including three children born to one of his daughters, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The abuse began in 2000, when Flucas lived with his family in Valdosta, Ga., according to evidence presented at trial. There, he owned or rented at least four houses on the same street where his wife, ex-wife, other partners and several children lived.

He moved his family to Americus, Ga., in 2014, after the grandmother of four of Flucas’ children made allegations leading to an investigation by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, according to the news release.

In September 2014, Flucas moved his family to Klamath Falls, Ore., where he began sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl who became friends with his daughter, according to court records. The girl moved into Flucas’ home and became pregnant, as did one of Flucas’ adult daughters for the third time.

Flucas and his family, including his daughter’s friend, then moved to Stockton in 2015, where he got a job as a teacher for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Prosecutors said he tried to hide the abuse by undermining the credibility of his victims and ordering them to lie to child protection authorities and police.

The family’s mantra was: “What happens in the family, stays in the family,� according to the news release.

The abuse was discovered in 2017, when one of Flucas’ teenage daughters drove into a lamp post in the hope that her death would lead officials to discover her father’s abuse, records show. The girl was taken to a hospital, where she told authorities about the abuse, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Before the crash, Flucas searched online for the conversion rate of the U.S. dollar to the Mexican peso as well as places to move, including China, Kenya, Ethiopia and Canada, according to evidence presented at his trial.

Prosecutors said the man told two of his victims that he would take them to a place where he believed incest was legal in order to continue the abuse, including New Jersey, Rhode Island and Switzerland.

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