Michael Rogers, 49, said he could not walk away and have the girl’s death on his conscience.
Rogers was being held without bond in Connecticut on Nov. 30, one day after he was arrested in Hamden and charged with being a fugitive from justice, police said. Georgia authorities plan to seek his extradition.
According to police, Rogers was convicted in 2001 of four counts of child molestation in Georgia, but fled the state in 2005 in violation of his probation.
Hamden Police said they first encountered Rogers on Sept. 2 when he pulled a despondent 16-year-old girl from a murky lake, and also saved a police officer who got trapped in deep mud attempting to rescue the girl.
Rogers, who initially told police his name was Michael Patrick, said he was jogging when he was flagged down by a distraught staff member from a child therapy center.
Rogers scaled the fence around the lake and restrained the suicidal teenager for more than five minutes to prevent her from entering the water until a Hamden officer arrived and jumped in the muck to join the struggle.
Rogers said the girl begged him to let her go so she could die. He eventually carried the teen to shore, where firefighters had arrived to help in the rescue. Rogers also rescued the officer who had become submerged so deep in the muck that he could not pull himself out.
“If I walked away it would be on my conscience. I just couldn’t walk away from that,” Rogers said of the incident.
Police learned the man’s true identity on Nov. 23, but did not disclose how they received the information. Details about the Georgia crimes were not disclosed either.
It’s a blessing that this guy’s conscience kicked in and convinced him to save the lives of two people who might otherwise have died. It remains a tragedy that his conscience didn’t bother him enough to prevent him from sexually victimizing a child in Georgia.
Perhaps if pedophiles admitted to themselves that their actions are the equivalent of the attempted murder of a child’s spirit and self-esteem, their consciences might surface more often and prevent them from violating children whose innocent and fragile spirits deserve protection. –kathleen cross
