New court dates for couple in child torture, assault, endangerment case

A Solano County Superior Court judge once again has rescheduled proceedings for a Fairfield couple, both 31, charged in connection with a notorious child torture, endangerment and assault case that came to light nearly three years ago.

Jonathan Allen, who was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Department 11 for a trial setting, will return to Judge William J. Pendergast’s courtroom at 8:30 a.m. April 13 in the Justice Center in Fairfield. He remains in Solano County Jail, with bail set at $5.2 million.

Ina Rogers, who has been charged with 10 counts of willful child endangerment and pleaded no contest in late 2019, was scheduled for sentencing Wednesday, but Pendergast reset the matter for 8:30 a.m. July 21. She is out of custody after her defense attorney, Barry K. Newman, submitted a motion for her release on Nov. 16 and the judge granted it. At sentencing, Rogers could face up to six years in state prison on one count alone and up to a $10,000 fine, if convicted of a felony.

She was arrested on 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 the sons of Allen and Ina Rogers, who was 12 at the time and said to have the mental capacity of an 8-year-old, 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, ranging in age from 4 months to 11 years old at the time, were found inside. The missing boy, asleep under a nearby bush, was located soon afterward.

Some of the 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, but 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 have been reduced and cases reshuffled.

Thomas A. Barrett, who heads the Alternate Public Defender’s Office, represents Allen.

During a preliminary hearing in December 2018, horrific allegations of the 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, 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.

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.