McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — The former elementary school teacher convicted of sleeping with a student and now accused of sending him sex videos of herself by cell phone is "sick" and should leave the boy alone, his mother told The Tennessean yesterday.
The mother spoke just hours after a judge sent former gym teacher Pamela Rogers back to jail on new charges that she sent nude photos and sexually explicit video to the teen, among other communications with him.
Rogers, 28, sent some of the illicit images to her former student even as she was being prosecuted on charges that she violated her probation by reaching out to him via messages on her MySpace.com Web page and blog.
"Just leave him alone," the mother said. "Leave my family alone … She could have served her six months in jail and gotten out and lived a pretty normal life. But she chose the path she chose."
The Tennessean does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent. The newspaper is not publishing the mother's name to protect the identity of her son, now about 15.
In addition to the videos and nude photos, Rogers sent a barrage of text messages and phone calls to the boy in the past month, according to an arrest warrant issued Monday.
She also asked that the boy send pictures and videos to her, and phone records suggest she received some, according to the warrant. The content or nature of those videos was not made clear in court documents.
Rogers is now jailed without bail in Warren County pending a July hearing. She appeared in court yesterday morning in handcuffs and black-and-white-striped jail clothes. Authorities said she turned herself in Monday.
The allegations, if proven to be true, could send her to prison to serve out the remainder of her eight-year sentence.
Rogers pleaded no contest to four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure last year. She was released in February after serving six months in Warren County Jail.
Terms of her plea agreement required the Centertown Elementary School gym teacher to surrender her teaching certificate for life, have no contact with the boy or his family, and stay off the Internet.
She has flagrantly and repeatedly violated those terms, according to a multiple-count arrest warrant. She was arrested April 11 on charges she violated her probation by posting suggestive photos of herself on her MySpace.com page, posting messages to the boy there and making contact with his 17-year-old sister.
She had an April 12 hearing before a judge and was freed on bond, awaiting a July hearing to determine her fate. According to the latest warrant, she sent the boy a text message just hours after the April 12 court appearance and was sending him "multiple text messages" for days after that.
The messages take a jealous tone and question the boy about relationships with other girls, according to the warrant.
"Do you still love me"? Rogers asks in a message sent on March 19.
In another message sent that day, according to the warrant, she writes the boy:
"Always still? R u still waitn? Or do u want me 2 try 2 move on wit my life? I miss you so much. I wish I could tlk 2 u."
In a message Rogers sent April 3, she writes:
"I thought u said u got over that s girl this past summer? What am I 2 blieve? What u said or what I feel? So I am suppost 2 wait while u r doing that. No lies."
Another message, according to the warrant, read:
"Good morning and I love u always. Thank u 4 makin me the happiest person n the world! I wil have this fone 2nite an 2moro I have 2 go 2 c a counselor a sex one."
As the boy's mother looked over the details outlined in the newest warrant yesterday, she just shook her head:
"Sick," the mother said. "It makes me sick. It makes me realize how sick she is."
Rogers' attorney, Peter Strianse, said he does not know whether the allegations against his client are true, but if they are, they raise questions about her mental health.
"If those allegations are true, if they can be proven, I have some real concerns about her mental competency.
"Some explanation is going to be needed to be offered to the court with what's going on emotionally, what's going on with her mentally. … It's not a complete defense. If these allegations can be proven, it could offer some mitigation to the court as to why this type of behavior was going on."
District Attorney General Dale Potter said he's heard people question Rogers' mental condition, but he's not swayed by it.
"That's the question everybody is asking: Does she have mental problems? My opinion, she evidently was capable. She got her college degree. She got her teaching certificate. A lot of people in society have mental issues, but it doesn't rise to the level that it's a criminal defense."
Rogers contacted the boy, who was 13 when their sexual relationship began, as late as April 19 by cell phone and had conversations with him, the warrant said.
On that day, investigators coordinated a midnight search of the boy's home in Warren County and Rogers' parents' home in Fentress County, where she had been living.
Investigators recovered the boy's cell phone, his mother said.
"He wants her to leave him alone," the mother said. "He wants to get on with his life. He wants this to be over."
The mother said Rogers has been manipulating her daughter's good will to make inroads with the boy and the family. Rogers contacted the girl on March 3, just five days after being released from jail, according to the warrant.
She sent a text message through another person the next day, telling the sister she could contact Rogers by phone at her parents' home before 3 p.m. during the week.
Rogers has made "multiple contacts by e-mail, phone and text message" with the sister. That continued even after Rogers' April 12 court appearance to answer charges she violated her probation, according to the warrant. •
Source and picture here.
