The defendant Eric Rogers also was sentenced for inappropriately touching children enrolled in his ex-wife's daycare at their home.
Following his arrest, a total of 24 people came forward and submitted victim impact statements, and 13 submitted restitution requests. All families affiliated with his ex-wife's daycare have been contacted by law enforcement, the Department of Justice said in a news release Monday.
Investigators found Rogers, 55, had roughly 1,400 images and 1,000 videos of child porn, distributing more than 40 of the images online, according to the sentencing memorandum by assistant U.S. Attorney William McLaren. The government factored in Rogers' own childhood sexual abuse and life struggles in the sentence decision, along with his decision to perpetuate that same trauma with his child victims, McLaren wrote.
"He photographed those children. He exploited those parents’ trust. All for sexual pleasure," the memorandum states. "He uploaded secretly taken photos of children to perverse websites. He boasted to equally depraved dark web dwellers about sexually abusing those children."
Rogers, a former commercial truck driver, was first investigated June 6, 2017, after an undercover agent looking for someone else on a child porn trading website found two files shared from Rogers' account. One contained photos of a girl in swimming clothes and a boy in an inflatable pool, as well as inappropriate comments by Rogers, McLaren wrote.
The agent began chatting and emailing with Rogers, after which he confessed to sexually touching a 6-year-old girl enrolled in his then-wife's daycare, according to McLaren. Rogers admitted to touching and kissing one of the children. He further admitted he was no longer allowed to be alone with the child, told the agent that the child attended his wife’s daycare, and that “things kind of went south.” In subsequent conversations, Rogers provided explicit details of how he sexually abused the child,” according to the release on the sentencing from the DOJ.
Investigators obtained a warrant on June 14, 2017, and searched the Rogers' home in Eugene when he was in California for work. They seized Rogers’ electronic devices and interviewed Rogers' wife, who said she ran a daycare in the home.
She told investigators she previously reported inappropriate conduct by Rogers to law enforcement, with nothing coming of the investigation, according to McLaren. The sentencing does not specify where she reported Rogers to. She divorced him after his arrest, McLaren wrote.
Investigators contacted Rogers in California the same day, and he said he knew they wanted to talk to him regarding child pornography. He admitted they would find videos and thousands of images on his devices, some of which depicted babies, according to McLaren. During a subsequent interview, Rogers admitted to uploading photos depicting children at his wife’s daycare, which is not named in the available court documents.
Rogers accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty Dec. 2 to one count of distributing child porn. He was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison. The crime has a maximum sentence of 20 years and a five-year minimum. He will face five years of supervised release after prison and will have to register as a sex offender. All families affiliated with his ex-wife's daycare have been contacted by law enforcement, the DOJ said.
Rogers' defense attorney Todd Grover advocated for the five-year prison minimum and five years of supervised release for his client, pointing to Rogers' need for substance abuse, mental health and sex offender treatment after he gets out of prison.
"Appropriate treatment programs are available in the community and can be layered so that Mr. Rogers is able to address these inter-related issues concurrently and in a wholistic fashion," Grover wrote in a memorandum. "A five-year term of supervised release should allow sufficient time for him to do so."
The government recommended the 12-year, seven-month sentence Rogers received, and factored in Rogers' anxiety and depression that plagued him from an early age, McLaren wrote.
"Enabled by his father, he began drinking early as well, and the habit persisted even to some of the events of sexual abuse he inflicted on his victims," the memorandum states.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the FBI and Eugene police. Anyone with information about physical or online exploitation of children can contact the Department of Homeland Security Investigations at 866-347-2423 or submit a tip online at ice.gov/tips.
