Prospect Park man jailed after violent assault on older man

PROSPECT PARK » A 30-year-old borough man is charged with assaulting a man at least twice his age in the victim’s own home last week, leaving the victim hospitalized in what a friend of the family described as an induced coma.

Aaron Rogers, 30, of the 1300 block of Lincoln Avenue, has been incarcerated at the county prison since his Feb. 2 preliminary arraignment on felony aggravated assault and burglary offenses, according to online court records.

Rogers was arrested on Feb. 1, shortly after 8:30 p.m. when Prospect Park police officers were dispatched to a residence in the 800 block of 13th Avenue for a possible burglary in progress with an assault victim.

The victim’s wife told authorities that an unknown individual attacked her husband and the intruder was still inside the residence. While the attack occurred on the first floor of their home, she was reporting the ordeal from a locked bedroom upstairs, according to the probable cause affidavit authored by Police Patrolman Jason Hoover.

Arriving officers entered the house through the front door, which was ajar.

Hoover found a man lying on his back on the floor of the living room, beneath a wicker chair. Unconscious, the victim had multiple lacerations on his head and upper body, according to the affidavit.

Officers proceeded to search the first, second and third floors of the residence.

In a bedroom on the third floor, borough Officer Steve Jones found a man attempting to hide behind a large wicker basket containing shoes, the affidavit states. The individual had blood on his hands and pants, and there were blood smears on the floor near where he was located.

A witness told police they saw this same individual walking up and down the street in front of the residence. He then walked up on the front porch of the residence in question, looked inside the front door and then walked into the house, the witness stated, according to the affidavit.

The victim’s wife told police that only she, her husband and her daughter belonged in the house, and “at no point should there have been any other male in the residence,” the affidavit states.

During the home search, police located a brown left shoe in the living room. The man found hiding in the third-floor bedroom had a brown shoe on his right foot, which matched the recovered single shoe. A pair of Ralph Lauren glasses police located on the couch in the living room was determined not to belong to the victim, his wife or her daughter.

Police also recovered an iPhone with a black and gray case, a pack of Marlboro cigarettes and blue Bic lighter, all from the same bedroom on the third floor where the intruder was found hiding, the affidavit states.

The victim’s daughter told police that she resides alone on the third floor of the house. She indicated that the items recovered from her living space did not belong to her, and she had never seen them before.

In addition to facial lacerations leaving his eyes swollen shut, the victim suffered a broken jaw and broken ribs, the affidavit states.

The victim remained hospitalized in the intensive care unit at CrozerChester Medical Center, a family friend said Wednesday night. At the time of the assault, the victim was still recuperating from an illness he suffered last year, the friend noted.

According to the criminal complaint, Rogers is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds.

Rogers is additionally charged with simple assault, criminal trespass, reckless endangerment and loitering and prowling at night, all misdemeanor offenses. He is being held at the county prison in lieu of posting 10 percent of $50,000 bail, according to online court records. A preliminary hearing is listed for Feb. 12 before Magisterial District Judge Jack D. Lippart.

Back in 2012, Rogers was charged by authorities in Radnor with possession with the intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance and use or possession of drug paraphernalia, according to online court records. He waived all offenses at the preliminary hearing level and later entered a non-negotiated guilty plea on the delivery charge, while the other two offenses were dismissed. He was sentenced in August, 2012, to serve 3 to 23 months in prison followed by a maximum of three years on probation, according to online court records.

It was not immediately known if Rogers had retained an attorney regarding his recent arrest.