Saturday, September 26, 1998

What has happened to the children?

By Bob Greene

CHILTON, WIS. - Michael and Angeline Rogers - spared from any time at all in state prison by Judge Steven Weinke - have begun their attempt to take back the children they abused.

If they are granted visits with the children, they have said through their attorneys that they hope the visits will lead to custody. They pleaded guilty to four felony counts of child abuse - accused of repeatedly locking their 7-year-old daughter in a dog cage, of beating her and her brothers with clubs, of depriving the children of food. No state prison time for that, Judge Weinke ruled - Mr. and Mrs. Rogers will live in the Calumet County Jail for a year, with permission to leave for up to 60 hours a week to go to work, and more time out of jail for counseling.

If the visits are permitted, there is even a chance the children will have to be transported to the jail to spend time with the people who abused them.

Lost in all of this is the story of the children themselves - what has happened to them since last Nov. 17, when the oldest boy, then 11, walked barefoot, coatless and crying to the Brillion, Wis., police station to beg someone to help his sister.

Donald Derozier, a psychologist who testified at the sentencing, has spoken with all five Rogers children. Here is his picture of what has become of them.

The boy who walked to the police station is living with a relative in another county. His "classmates like him"; he is "active in his new community, known around the library, has a lot of friends."

But he "feels survivor's guilt" for not having been able to help his sister sooner. He has feelings that "he hasn't been punished enough."

The second-oldest boy lives in a foster home away from his sister and brothers. He is "a social isolate"; he has "only one friend." Because of what he has been through, he is considered, at the age of 10, "a good therapy candidate."

The two youngest boys are now 7 and 2. They live together in another foster home. The 7-year-old fears "that he could be the next one" - the next to be caged and punished. He suffers "a pervasive fear that something bad is going to happen to him."

The 2-year-old was very young during the caging of his sister and the beatings of her and his brothers. He is the only Rogers child who so far "shows no obvious problems" - although it was observed that he "latches on to everybody - he's a barnacle, looking for a boat."

And the little girl? The child who was rescued from the cage?

She has turned 8. As the result of her caging, she suffered from "isolation- and torture-related symptoms." Since being freed from captivity, she has grown taller and heavier, and has "shown the ability to love others. She has been able to receive love, which means she has begun to trust."

One bittersweet fact about the little girl's life was not mentioned in court.

Last February, court testimony indicated she was getting along wonderfully in the home of Michael Rogers' brother Chris and his wife, Stephanie. The original foster placement of the girl with Chris and Stephanie Rogers had drawn criticism because of the relation to the abuser, Michael Rogers. But the girl grew to love them and to trust them. "She has admitted to us that she never wants to leave our home," Chris Rogers told Judge Donald A. Poppy back then. She "treats us like parents who love her. She is becoming the little girl she wants to be."

Judge Poppy agreed to give it a chance. "Chris and Stephanie have provided this girl with something she has never had in her life," the judge said at the time. "And that is love."

She is no longer with Chris and Stephanie Rogers. In a courthouse hallway, Stephanie Rogers told us that because of a personal situation in their lives, the girl has had to leave and has been placed in a different foster home. The love is still there, Stephanie said - but the girl no longer lives there.

All of this is what has happened to these children because of what Michael and Angeline Rogers did to them.

And now the children, in their various stages of recovery and healing, must deal with the knowledge that Michael and Angeline Rogers are going to court to try to take them back.

Chicago Tribune