Teacher charged with possessing child porn to be placed on house arrest

By Jean Reid Norman

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 | 3:20 p.m.

A Boulder City science teacher charged with possession of child pornography is expected to be released from jail and placed on house arrest after a judge reduced his bail today.

Boulder City Justice of the Peace Victor Miller reduced bail for Charles Richard “Rick” Rogers, 46, to $75,000 and said once bail is posted, Rogers can be released from the Clark County Detention Center and placed on house arrest.

He must remain in Clark County but outside Boulder City, Miller said. Bail on the 64 counts of possession of child pornography initially had been set at $192,000.

“It is better for the community and for Mr. Rogers that he not live in Boulder City,” Miller said.

Rogers’ attorney Bill Terry said after today’s 1 p.m. hearing that he expected Rogers to be out of the county jail tomorrow. Rogers is the recipient of a kidney transplant and has special medical needs, Terry told Miller in arguing for house arrest.

Rogers, a teacher at Garrett Junior High School and a youth soccer coach, was arrested Thursday as he was about to leave school.

Rogers was picked up after Henderson police received an anonymous letter the previous day claiming he had sexual images of minors, Boulder City Police Chief Thomas Finn said. Included with the letter was a thumb drive and two digital memory cards containing pornographic videos and images of young boys in sexual acts with men, according to an arrest report.

The letter alleged that the digital storage devices came from Rogers’ home, the report said. The storage devices also included photographs of Rogers, his vehicles, children in soccer uniforms and Rogers’ school lesson plans, the report said.

Police obtained warrants and searched Rogers’ car, classroom and home in Boulder City. They confiscated computers, photographs, VHS cassette tapes, cameras and digital storage devices from the home and the classroom, according to the arrest report.

As of today, the district attorney’s office did not have formal charges prepared. Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rogan told Miller at the hearing that, because of the amount of information gathered during the searches, the district attorney’s office needed a few more days to prepare the charges.

“It’s a very involved case,” Rogan said. “Detectives have to view each piece and describe it.”

Rogers’ attorney told the judge that Rogers has lived in the area since 1980 and owns two homes in the county, one outside Boulder City. He has worked for the Clark County School District since 1992.

After his arrest, Rogers was placed on paid administrative leave from his teaching job, pending investigation of the case, a Clark County School District spokeswoman said.

Rogers, who was also a part-time soccer coach for the Boulder City Department of Parks and Recreation and worked for the city for 24 years, will no longer coach a city soccer team, Roger Hall, director of parks and recreation said.

Rogers was scheduled to return to Justice Court April 7.