Wednesday, April 19, 2000
Auditor confident she'll beat charge
'Most people can see through this,' Kay Rogers says
BY Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP — As Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers was handcuffed and led into the county jail, she kept thinking: “This cannot possibly be real.”
Kay Rogers
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Ms. Rogers, 41, arrested Monday at her Union Township home on a telephone harassment complaint lodged by her ex-husband, on Tuesday said she's confident she'll be exonerated. She's determined, she said, not to let her legal troubles affect her duties as auditor.
She's also not too worried about the situation damaging her politically because, she told the Enquirer, “I think most people can see through this for what it is.”
But Ms. Rogers, who expects to return to her office today, said she's concerned about the effects on her six children.
“It was hard to sit them down and tell them: "Daddy had Mommy arrested ... Mommy was in jail,'” Ms. Rogers said, adding that she planned to have a family conference Tuesday night so the children, ages 4 to 15, could air their feelings.
Ms. Rogers' arrest came as a result of a complaint that her ex-husband, Gary M. Rogers of Middletown, filed with the county sheriff's office last week. He alleges that Ms. Rogers repeatedly called his cell phone and therefore made him pay for unwanted calls. In a police report, he said she was making the calls because she was upset about a lawsuit pending between them.
But Ms. Rogers on Tuesday said sometimes she was actually calling at her ex-husband's request to discuss matters involving visitation with the children or the children's activities.
“He can say whatever he wants, and I have to defend myself because I'm a public official. It's all harder because I'm a public official, and he knows that,” she said. “This wouldn't be in the newspaper if I weren't the auditor.”
Mr. Rogers, her husband for 15 years until December 1997, has declined to comment; his attorney, Bradford Sanders of Montgomery, did not return a telephone call seeking comment Tuesday.
Ms. Rogers said she is scheduled to face the charge in Butler County Area III Court on May 8. Prosecutor John F. Holcomb, who has clashed publicly with Ms. Rogers in recent months, has said he will seek a special prosecutor and visiting judge to handle the case.
Ms. Rogers said that, although her arrest was humiliating, she has received numerous phone calls offering support, including several church congregations that reported they were praying for her and the children.
“It makes me feel good about the people of this county,” she said. “I've made a commitment to the citizens of the county, and I'm not backing down because people are trying to hurt me. I'm a good auditor. I'm a good mother. And I'm sure that in the end I'll be fine, and my kids will be fine because I've done nothing wrong.”
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