Sex offender asks that charges be dropped
Former prosecutor's husband accused of failing to register; new details come to light
Friday, June 16, 2006
By DAVID FERRARA
Staff Reporter
BAY MINETTE -- After sitting in jail for more than seven months without facing an indictment, Vernon L. Rogers -- a convicted sex offender and estranged husband of Baldwin County's former child sex abuse prosecutor -- asked a judge Thursday to dismiss the charges against him.
Baldwin County Circuit Judge James H. Reid Jr. did not say when he would rule on the request; no future court date had been set in the case as of Thursday.
Rogers was booked into the county Corrections Center in November on charges of failure to register as a sex offender and failure to notify authorities.
Several months ago, the state attorney general's office dropped charges against Rogers' soon-to-be-ex-wife, Tanya Hallford. She had been arrested on the same day as Rogers, on a charge of harboring the fact that he was a fugitive.
Hallford has maintained she was conned and did not know about Rogers' background.
Rogers' attorney, Don Bolton, argued Thursday that the $50,000 bond was excessive, and that Rogers could not afford even a minimal amount.
Bolton suggested that prosecutors have little evidence against his client and that is why they haven't indicted Rogers. "They don't want to do anything but keep him in jail on a bond he can't make," Bolton said during the hearing. "Don't make him sit there like these military combatants, ad infinitum."
Assistant Attorney General Stephanie Billingslea said that she has had trouble obtaining documents about Rogers' criminal background from Illinois, where he was convicted in 1987 of a sexual attack on a 12-year-old girl.
"We have not dragged our heels," Billingslea told the judge. "I am trying to proceed cautiously with this case. When I go to the grand jury, I will have evidence to back up my charge."
On Monday, another judge agreed to grant Hallford's request to annul her marriage to Rogers. As soon as the judge signs the paperwork, their union will be void, Hallford said.
"There was a sense of sadness," she said. "But it was as if a burden had been lifted off my shoulders."
Although Rogers is charged in Baldwin County under his birth name, he was granted an official name change to Julian Jay Roseony, in a petition that Hallford oversaw. Afterward, Hallford had also gone by Roseony as well, though she has since returned to using her maiden name.
Meanwhile, more details have emerged about Rogers' past.
Lisa Jobe, recently contacted the Press-Register, saying she dated him when they were both teenagers, has a daughter by him and said that Rogers is a grandfather. Jobe, of Haines City, Fla, said she has had sporadic contact with Rogers, whom she knows as "Randy," since the late 1980s.
After learning of Rogers' arrest in Baldwin County, the daughter, now 20, mailed him a picture of his grandson.
He responded by saying that he expected to be released from jail soon and wanted to contact them, Lisa Jobe said, but she and her daughter have not replied.
Jobe indicated in strong terms that she does not care to see him. "People need to know what a fraud he really is," she said.
Hallford said she learned about the Jobe daughter about two months ago, but has not been in contact with her. "These are people I didn't even know existed prior to April of this year," Hallford said.
Also, she said she had tracked down two of Rogers' relatives to find out more about him. "They just confirmed that everything he ever told me regarding his family background, his history, everything was a complete lie," Hallford said.
Rogers' brother and sister denied that he attacked the young girl in Illinois, Hallford said, but "they had cut off all communication with him because they just didn't get along."
Despite all that she has learned, Hallford, who began working as a criminal defense lawyer after being cleared of the charges, said that she still has "compassion for him and his situation."
She believes his case has moved too slowly through the court system. "I'm not saying that I like him. I'm saying from a legal standpoint it's not right," Hallford said.
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