Mom, dad deny torturing kids

A northern California woman denied that she or her husband abused their 10 children after authorities said the kids suffered puncture wounds, burns, bruising and injuries consistent with being shot with a pellet gun.

The children, ages four months to 12 years, were removed from their home March 31 after Ina Rogers contacted authorities to report that her oldest child was missing, police said.

Officers went to the home in Fairfield, 74 kilometres northeast of San Francisco, and found filthy conditions, Lt. Greg Hurlbut said.

“Officers located unsafe and unsanitary living conditions including garbage and spoiled food on the floor, animal and human feces and a large amount of debris making areas of the house unpassable,” he said.

Authorities said some of the injuries to the children appeared to have been caused by someone shooting a pellet gun.

The father, 29-year-old Jonathan Allen, was arrested Friday after the children were interviewed.

He has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of torture and nine counts of felony child abuse and was being held on US$5.2 million bail.

The children did not require medical attention when they were removed. Stories about the alleged abuse came out gradually over the past six weeks and eight of the children told professionals about in- cidents dating back several years, authorities said.

Sharon Henry, chief deputy district attorney for Solano County, said she was “horrified” by the statements from the children and that torture was carried out in the house “for sadistic purposes.” She declined to elaborate.

“It literally breaks your heart, and you’re outraged by how a parent or anyone could commit those acts,” Henry said.

Rogers, 30, was arrested on suspicion of neglect last month and released after posting $10,000 bail.

She denied her husband had abused the children.

“There’s no broken bones, there is no major scars, nothing,” Rogers told reporters in front of her house. “My kids get bumped and bruised and scratched because they’re kids but that’s it.”

Rogers gave journalists a tour of the house, a four-bedroom home with scuffed walls and animal feces in the bathroom.

Rogers said the children slept in one bedroom because they were close and that cots were stored in a bedroom closet. The home’s other rooms were used as a master bedroom, playroom and meditation room.

On the day the children were removed, the house was messy because she had just torn it apart looking for her missing son, who was angry because his parents had taken away his tablet computer, Rogers said.

Rogers said she feels the family is being judged for having so many children and choosing to home-school them.