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Pe Ell mother faces charge of assault of her child

2015.0612.lawandorder.final [1]

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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 [2]