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March 28, 2024

Former teacher gets 6 life sentences in child sex case

Charles Richard

Richard Brian

Charles Richard “Rick” Rogers, 46, a teacher at Garrett Junior High and a city youth soccer coach, enters Boulder City Justice Court before an April 7, 2009, bail hearing.

Updated Tuesday, June 8, 2010 | 4:51 p.m.

A Boulder City man who prosecutors say spent his life positioning himself to be able to sexually prey on young boys will now likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

Charles Richard Rogers, a former Boulder City middle school teacher and youth soccer coach, was sentenced Tuesday in Clark County District Court to six life sentences — four that will run one after the other.

Rogers, 47, will have to serve a minimum of 60 years before he is eligible for parole under the sentence handed down by District Judge Michael P. Villoni.

"To a certain extent, you did some good things in your life," Villoni told Rogers, who was a well-liked science teacher at Garret Middle School who also coached boys' soccer.

However, the harm to the victims "outweighs by a million times," the good Rogers had done in his life, Villoni said.

Rogers, known as “Rick,” had been a part-time Boulder City Police officer until 1991. He was also a licensed foster parent and fostered two children from 1996 until June 2008. He moved to the Las Vegas area in 1980 and began working for the Clark County School District in 1992.

Rogers’ arrest in March 2009 stunned the small town of Boulder City. He pleaded guilty to three counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14, two counts of sexual assault with a minor under the age of 14, and one count of the use of a minor under the age of 14 in the production of pornography.

The original indictment against Rogers included dozens of crimes that spanned from 1999 to 2009, including numerous charges of possession of child porn.

Stacy Kollins, chief deputy district attorney, special victims unit, said that thanks to the collaborative efforts of the Boulder City and Henderson police departments, "we find ourselves with a very prolific offender."

Kollins said the case began with an anonymous delivery to the Henderson Police Department of a computer Zip drive that contained images of a man with various children and an address in Boulder City.

Police were able to learn the man in the images was Rogers, then obtained a search warrant for his residence, she said.

"The case started out with about 15 counts of child pornography," she said. "During the execution of that warrant, multiple computers, Zip drives, CDs and VHS tapes were found."

Those provided images of Rogers engaged in sexual acts with multiple juvenile boys, as well as regularly traded child pornography, Kollins said. At that time, investigators had not yet identified any of the boys, she said.

Eventually, the Boulder City police department used school yearbooks to help track down some of the victims, which helped to break open the case for Rogers' live victim sexual abuse as well as his use of the boys in his production of child pornography, Kollins said.

"There is fondling, there is feined anal intercourse, there is fellatio," she said. They also found writings made by Rogers that whether they were fantasy or realistic, "are quite disturbing," she said.

Kollins said she didn't attach that to the sentencing memo she sent to the judge because she didn't want it to be part of the public record.

"You know judge, I've been doing this job for a while. I was going to read that to you in court, particularly the second page, and I can't do it. I just can't do it," Kollins said, her voice shaking. "It involves feces and urination and fellatio and it is very graphic and it is very graphic to specific victims."

Kollins said she was concerned that the court did not know the full extent of what Rogers had done, including "this offender's relentless pursuit of juvenile males in our community."

"I think what the state finds very disturbing about this case is this defendant's ability to permeate the community and cloak himself in such a way to gain the trust of the police department and the school district and the foster care system," Kollins said. "All the while it was just a means to his own end: the sexual abuse of young males in our community."

Kollins told the judge that Rogers "can't be cured. He cannot be rehabilitated and he can't be fixed. He is is a predator. And he is one of the most frightening types of predators because of the way he has been able to position himself as a philanthropist, as one who cares for children, as a soccer coach and as a teacher."

She said some of the sexual acts occurred at the Boulder Middle School.

"He has positioned himself with juvenile males for a course of years. He's not going to change," she said.

Before sentencing, Rogers told the judge "I know that I'm going to be incarcerated. I know that it is going to be for a long time. ... No matter what anybody says today, it's not going to be any worse than how I feel right now. I feel very bad about this whole thing."

Rogers said he decided to plead guilty and not to go to trial "to protect kids" from having to come into the court to testify.

He said he knew that he had disappointed and betrayed "hundreds and hundreds of people," including his family, friends, co-workers and parents who trusted him.

"To say I'm sorry doesn't seem strong enough," Rogers said. "... I would hope some day people would be able to forgive me. I don't agree that I can't be fixed. I just don't agree with that. I don't agree that I'm a predator. I do agree I've done some things, a lot of things, that I'm ashamed of."

Rogers said that, due to his medical conditions -- he has had a kidney transplant and is suffering from cancer -- that he doesn't expect to survive a long sentence.

Rogers asked the judge to grant him "some light at the end of the tunnel" so he would have the possibility of proving he could redeem himself.

He said that he had done a lot of positive things in his life and that it wasn't just so he could be in search of victims.

"I've served my country. I've served my community. I feel I've done a lot of great things in my life," he said. "I feel like the acts I've committed have thrown that all out the window and made my life worthless."

Before sentencing, the judge heard from the mother of one of Rogers' victims, who she had adopted when the boy was 16 years old. She said the boy suffered bouts of insomnia and had nightmares.

Eventually, when the boy saw Rogers being arrested on television, he began vomiting and finally admitted that he had been abused by Rogers since he was 10 years old. Since that time, her son has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and has racked up thousands of dollars in medical bills, the mother told the judge.

The boy, who is now 18, told the judge that he almost killed himself. He said he knows of two more victims who were too afraid to come forward.

"There isn't a day that I don't think about this," the boy said.

The mother called for life imprisonment for Rogers, who, she said, has done "permanent damage" to her son.

"The man is a monster and he has no soul," the mother said. "Why should he have a light at the end of the tunnel? ... There will be a very, very special place for him in hell."

A father of one of the victims was very emotional as he spoke to the judge about Rogers.

"If he dies in prison, then so be it," the father said, "because he don't deserve parole."

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