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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – On the same day two weeks ago when Joseph W. Rogerson went before a judge charged with third-degree assault of a child, prosecutors sent off a summons for his wife and filed the same charge against her for an alleged incident from January.
Diana M. Rogerson, 38, appeared before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.
The cases are unrelated but it’s the same alleged victim; her 7-year-old daughter.
Charging documents state Diana M. Rogerson’s ex-husband called law enforcement on Jan. 31 after his girlfriend discovered, while helping with a bath, a bruise on the child’s left buttock.
The girl’s older brother told the deputy his mom got angry with his sister because she refused to say prayers at dinnertime, took her in the bathroom and spanked her and then took her back in the bathroom and spanked her with a belt. Court documents indicate the incident occurred four to six days previous.
The bruise appeared to be darker on the ends and red in the center, the deputy noted.
The older brother said his mother commented she had broken a blood vessel in her hand from the spanking.
Charging documents go on to relate that Diana M. Rogerson told deputies she didn’t know how her daughter got the bruise, but said her hands hurt when she spanks her daughter.
She reportedly said her daughter had been disrespectful and fought to get away from being spanked, and that she retrieved a one-inch belt and folded it twice before spanking her.
The case has been assigned to Child Protective Services. The children are now living with their father in Toledo based on a temporary protection order secured on June 6.
The Rogersons live in Pe Ell.
Third-degree assault of a child is a class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
The allegation is bodily harm accompanied by substantial pain that extended for a period sufficient to cause considerable suffering to a child younger than 13 years old.
Her husband Joseph W. Rogerson, 37, was charged on June 6 with third-degree assault of a child for allegedly punching his 7-year-old step-daughter in the arm when she got in between a physical dispute involving him and her mother.
The felony charge put at risk his deferred prosecution on last summer’s DUI, related to a head-on crash in Onalaska that left three teenagers dead. Law enforcement’s investigation found he was not to blame, as he was traveling in his own lane.
Diana M. Rogerson reportedly also told deputies she and her husband have been under a lot of stress as a result of the car accident.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey set her bail with a $10,000 unsecured bond and told her to return on June 30 for her arraignment.
Judge Brosey commented in court about the difference between the two cases.
“This one has the potential defense of reasonable parental discipline,” he said. “Whereas the other one does not.”
Outside the courtroom today, Diana M. Rogerson said the assault allegations against both she and her husband are coming from her ex-husband.
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For background, read “Driver from last summer’s deadly Onalaska wreck back in court” from Tuesday June 7, 2016, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
I agree nana of 2, i am in my 40s and i was spanked not abused as a child, i have 2 children now, one in teens and one in early twenties, and , if and when needed, i spanked, not abused them, i have two of the most well behaved and successful offspring. We need to put the responsibility of raising our children back in the home. Maybe then we wouldn’t have the problems we have now with a world full of no discipline!
Exceptionally normal: Do you want to babysit my kids LOL
IMO most kids & situations don’t require physical discipline. Some do. 38 yrs later I intensely regret hitting my son with the soft end of a belt for pilfering his brother’s piggybank. I do not regret swatting his little bro’s bebutt for running out into the road without looking. NOBODY but nobody shd be hit for not praying. Yet I feel sorry for this family. Once into the legal system, they & their child are in for $$$ and psychic torture from the only arm of govt colder + meaner than the IRS. Physical pain will come to taste like creme soda in comparison.
Get drunk, and just beat the living-shit-out-of-them for Jesus! Amen
“I find no excuse for anyone to spank a child…”
So how DO you deal with a child who will NOT listen to reason, Beverly jean? Like BustyBabe says, there’s a difference between discipline and abuse. My dad would spank me with a belt or slipper (those can deliver a message better than some might think) when I really acted up as a kid. Fifty years later, I’m glad he did. Time outs don’t always work.
Yeah we have seen “reasonable discipline” over the past few years….Kora Lynn Fister, Jasper Warner-Henderling. If the child ends up with our county coroner caring for them then it is not reasonable!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There’s a difference between discipline and abuse,
When my children were toddlers and started to touch the outlets or even the oven door( they weren’t tall enough to reach stovetop),something that could harm them,you bet I used my one hand,not arm,my hand ,and I smacked their hand,not hard just a tap,but it let them know,along with my words,that those were a no- no,it could hurt them really bad and momma would cry,,it honestly took one time and they learned not to do it.
Abuse is using anything other than a hand,..this mother needs me to use a belt on her and see how she likes it
Maybe if more people spanked their kids, we wouldn’t have the generations of absolute BRATS that we have…That being said, when I say “spank”, I mean an open hand to the backside – no belts, no flip flops, no hairbrushes…NOT hard enough to break a blood vessel in the hand, but hard enough for the kid to understand that they are being disciplined – this “go sit in the corner and think about what you did” or “time out” bs is exactly that – BS! There is a difference between swatting your kid on the butt and abusing or harming your child…
I find no excuse for anyone to spank a child , let alone to spank a child with their hand so hard they injure their own hand …
I find it no excuse to use a belt or item to strike a child , let alone a folded belt striking so hard leaving a mark on any part of the childs’ body …
Totally disgusted with anyone that would harm an innocent child …or punishing by extreme of a precious child …
YOU DON’T HIT KIDS!!!!