Monday, January 19, 1998

Done 'for protection of the children'

By BOB GREENE

BRILLION, Wis. - The police here are as frustrated as anyone else about the way the Calumet County Department of Human Services has handled the case of the five Rogers children - the 7-year-old girl who was found in a basement dog cage on Nov. 17, the 11-year-old brother who walked barefoot to the police station to find help, and their three brothers.

After the children's parents, Michael and Angeline Rogers, were arrested - each has been charged with 10 felony counts of child abuse, and each faces 95 years in prison if convicted - Brillion police chief Alan Radloff sent a letter to Calumet County District Atty. Ken Kratz that began:

"I am greatly concerned for the victims of Angeline and Michael Rogers. It is especially disturbing that the children have been pulled from the Brillion School District by the Department of Human Services and are now attending school elsewhere. Upon talking to members of the Brillion School District, I learned that the children want to continue school here in Brillion. The trauma these children encountered due to abuse, and now the added stress placed on them from being pulled from the district is very detrimental to their well being.

"In addition I have concerns over the placement of the children with family members. By placing the children with family members there is a great potential for witness tampering. I am also concerned over the conditions of release for both Angeline and Michael Rogers. I am also aware of Human Services' proposed family counseling (during which Mr. and Mrs. Rogers would be granted visits with the children). This again would be in direct violation of their conditions of release."

Brillion police officers strongly suspect that more than one allegation of abuse in the Rogers home was received by the Department of Human Services. They can't find out, they say, because Human Services won't tell them. On Nov. 17, hours before the 11-year-old walked in tears to the police station to ask for help for his sister, Human Services sent out a letter saying that "a possible incident of child abuse or neglect" at the Rogers house had been investigated and "found to be unsubstantiated."

Sgt. Daniel Alloy, the officer who went into the basement with a flashlight and found the girl in the cage, said that in this case and other cases involving children, the Department of Human Services "informs us zero percent of the time what's going on. We're supposed to help protect these children, and Human Services makes our job more difficult."

Asked if people who are raising questions about the Department of Human Services' actions in this case are being too hard on the department, Sgt. Alloy said:

"Too hard? You're not being hard enough."

Michael and Angeline Rogers, by the way, walking around free on bail, are each being provided with not one, but two attorneys by the taxpayers of Calumet County. Four taxpayer-provided lawyers for them, for different aspects of their cases. While the children, after asking not to leave, were sent off to another county.

The chief elected official in Calumet County is Vern Gonzo, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. The way Gonzo found out about the Department of Human Services' "unsubstantiated" child abuse/neglect letter is from us. Mary Kennedy, the director of the Department of Human Services, had somehow neglected to tell him about that part of the case. Gonzo had to be given the letter by a newspaperman from Chicago.

This is a small county. The county board offices, the Human Services offices, the chambers of Judge Donald A. Poppy - they're all neighbors in the same county office building. Judge Poppy is the only judge in Calumet County - and he is telling reporters that if the Rogers family is identifiable in any stories the reporters write about hearings that will determine what will be done with the children, the reporters may face jail sentences.

All of this is ostensibly being done "for the protection of the children."

But if the Department of Human Services had continued to protect the Rogers children the way it was, some of those children might very well be dead by now.

And the unavoidable question - a question being asked by police officers, by school officials, by taxpaying citizens of Calumet County - continues to be:

Who is really protecting whom?

Chicago TribuneSend a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story