Trial date to be set in horrific child torture case
A Solano County Superior Court judge in the coming months will schedule a trial for a 33-year-old Fairfield man who was charged, along with his wife, in a notorious child torture, endangerment and assault case that came to light more than four years ago.
Jonathan Michael Allen, who appeared in Department 11 on Jan. 19 for more proceedings in the case, will return at 8:30 a.m. March 21 for a readiness conference and a trial setting in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
His wife, Ina Aurelia Rogers, also 33, appeared in Department 23 earlier this month, when her sentencing was rescheduled for 8:30 a.m. April 14, court records show. She has been charged with 10 counts of willful child endangerment and pleaded no contest in late 2019. Her sentencing has been scheduled and rescheduled many times.
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 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, were found inside. The missing boy, asleep under a nearby bush, was located soon afterward.
Some charges against Allen — multiple counts of child torture, child cruelty with possible injury and lewd acts on a child — date back to 2014.
He originally had been scheduled for a jury trial in early May 2020. Because of the pandemic and public health directives during the past several years, some court operations were reduced and cases reshuffled as COVID-19 cases surged and ebbed.
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, 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, the pouring of scalding hot water on a child's feet. Allen also is charged with at least three counts of lewd acts on a child under 14.
Former 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.
The Alternate Public Defender represents Allen, who remains in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield, with bail set at $5.25 million.
In Rogers' case, her nocontest plea meant she did not admit guilt but stated, essentially, she would offer no defense. She is represented by Fairfield criminal defense attorney Barry Kent Newman.
Rogers has remained out of custody after Newman earlier submitted a motion for her release and the judge granted it. At sentencing, Rogers 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 was taken into custody several weeks later, on May 10, with the couple's story making national headlines.