A man accused of raping a girl from around age eight through 18 in Millington and Bartlett is confined to his house, suspended from work and watching the case against him unfold.
The victim, now 19 and a Millington resident, reported to Millington police on May 3 that Memphis firefighter Michael Fruitticher raped her repeatedly from around 2007 or 2008 through April 2019. She said he used several cell phones to record the sex acts.
According to court documents, Millington police and other agencies got warrants and conducted searches of the man’s home and truck in Jackson, Tenn.
They seized various devices, including cell phones that contained nude and sexually explicit photos of the victim. One series of photos on a seized phone dates to October 2013, when the victim was 14 years old.
Fruitticher formerly lived with his wife in Millington. She provided officers with an April 2019 text from her husband, asking her to have a sexual threesome with him and the teen.
Millington police asked for and received the FBI’s help in the investigation. FBI Special Agent Stephen K. Lies said the evidence used to secure Fruitticher’s arrest warrant is just part of the total evidence gathered to date in this case.
Fruitticher was arrested on May 31 and posted a $25,000 bond on June 6. He remains under home detention (house arrest) with restrictions that include no contact with any minor unless it is his biological child, and contact them will only be permitted with the approval of his wife or the court.
The current complaints against Fruitticher are for production and possession of sexually explicit images of a minor.
Other news media have reported his attorney, Joseph S. Ozment, as saying Fruitticher maintains his innocence and they intend to fight the allegations in federal court. Ozment was not immediately available for further comments on the case at press time.
Fruitticher has worked for the Memphis Fire Department since 2013.
