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John Rogers
A man arrested in Georgia was recently sent back to Florida to face accusations of molesting three Putnam County children younger than 13.
John Thomas Rogers, 52, has been charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious behavior, one count of child abuse and one count of distributing obscene material to a minor, according to a Putnam County Sheriff’s Office incident report.
Rogers is accused of touching or trying to touch three children, who were 12, 11 and 8 when they reported the abuse in 2022, between the legs and on their private parts, according to the report. Rogers is a familial relative of the children, Sheriff’s office Col. Joe Wells said in an email Thursday.
The molestations were first reported to the sheriff’s office March 9, 2022, and a warrant for Rogers’ arrest was issued on Oct. 28, 2022, sheriff’s office documents show.
A witness at an Interlachen residence heard two of the children talking about a sexual abuse event, leading to an unnamed witness confronting Rogers about the children’s conversation, the incident report reads.
When confronted about inappropriately touching children, Rogers left, saying he was going to stay at a homeless shelter in Georgia, according to the report.
Deputies downloaded a video from the cellphone belonging to a 12-year-old boy, one of the three minors who have accused Rogers, authorities said. The Feb. 15, 2022, video showed Rogers and the boy talking about sex and sexual orientation, authorities said.
Rogers could be seen showing the child a pornographic website and offering to perform a sexual act on the victim, according to the incident report.
The victim later told sheriff’s office deputies Rogers had given him three tabs of LSD the night the video was recorded, the report states. The 12-year-old accused Rogers of trying to coerce him into having sex, authorities said, but the boy did not have sexual intercourse with the suspect.
“(The boy) was not in the right state of mind,” Detective Allison Deville wrote in the report after watching the video.
Rogers is said to have “humped” the family dog after the boy rebuffed the suspect’s sexual advances, according to the report. Rogers unsuccessfully tried to touch the boy’s genitals, the incident report reads, but the child informed authorities the suspect groped the victim’s butt during a hug.
One of the female victims told authorities Rogers touched her legs and genitals, expressing his wish that she was 21, according to the incident report. Rogers became enraged when the girl told him she had a crush on someone in her class, according to the sheriff’s office report.
She said Rogers told her she would get in trouble if she told anyone what he had been doing, the report stated.
Another female minor reported being touched on the genitals, the documents state. The girl told authorities Rogers was being a “pervert,” according to the report.
Rogers was booked into the Putnam County Jail on Wednesday. Wells said he received no bond.