Trial date pending in child torture
A Solano County Superior Court judge once again has reshuffled a trial set for a 33-year-old Fairfield man charged, along with his wife, in connection with a notorious child torture, endangerment and assault case that came to light more than four years ago.
Jonathan Michael Allen, who appeared Monday in Department 11, heard Judge William J. Pendergast reschedule a readiness conference and new setting date for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 3 in the Justice Center in Fairfield, court records show.
Chief Deputy Public Defender Thomas Barrett represents Allen, who remains in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield, with bail set at $5.25 million.
Allen's wife, Ina Rogers, charged with 10 counts of willful child endangerment, pleaded no contest in late 2019. She is scheduled for sentencing at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 15. She is out of custody after her defense attorney, Barry K. Newman earlier submitted a motion for her release and the judge granted it. At sentencing, Rogers, also 33, could face up to six years in state prison and up to a $10,000 fine for a single felony charge alone.
She was arrested April 3, 2018, and Allen several weeks later, on May 10, with the couple's story making national headlines.
The alleged crimes surfaced in March 2018, when one of their sons, then 12 and said to have the mental capacity of an 8-yearold, disappeared from the family's Fieldstone Court residence.
Police were notified and searched the home as part of the investigation and found what they described as squalid, 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,” according to wording in the Solano County District Attorney's complaint.
Nine more children, ages 4 months to 11 years, were found inside. The missing boy, asleep under a nearby bush, was located soon afterward.
Some charges against Allen, multiple counts of child torture, and lewd acts on a child, date back to 2014.
He originally had been scheduled for a jury trial in early May 2020. Court records indicate that Pendergast ordered him to return at that time for a trial readiness conference, a trial setting and further proceedings, but, because of the pandemic and public health directives, some court operations were reduced and cases reshuffled, as they have been this month due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.
During a preliminary hearing in December 2018, horrific allegations of torture, based on investigators' findings, were heard in public for the first time. All directed at Allen — more than 10 of them, the maximum number posted on a public court calendar — they included physical abuse that left scars and cuts, evidence of choking, malnutrition, the use of duct tape and waterboarding, biting that drew blood, the shooting of sharp wooden sticks or small metal rods from a bow and the pouring of scalding water on a child's feet. Allen also is charged with at least three counts of lewd acts on a child under 14.
Solano County Chief Deputy District Attorney Sharon Henry said at the time that she was “horrified” by the children's statements and that “as a parent, first and foremost in my heart, we believe these children deserve justice.”
If found guilty of the torture and molestation charges, Allen faces more than 50 years to life in state prison.