Dad may be charged with murder in death of 10-year-old girl--10 years after he shook her (Edwardsville, Illinois)

Dad TORRANCE T. ROGERS violently shook his 10-week-old daughter for crying (crying is a common trigger for abuser dads). The baby suffered a severe brain injury and lost 95% of her brain function. Ten years later, the little girl has died as a result of those injuries. So prosecutors have a decision to make: Can they file murder charges against Dad?

http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/edwardsville-29876-brings-new.html

Child's death brings new charges in case
August 06, 2009 9:22 PM
By SANFORD J. SCHMIDT
The Telegraph

EDWARDSVILLE — Prosecutors here may help set a legal precedent if they win a newly filed murder case involving a child who died nearly 10 years after being violently shaken by her father.

Torrance T. Rogers, 29, of East St. Louis was indicted Thursday by a grand jury in a case that took a critical turn after the child, Taylor N. Pinkas Rogers, died last January, just a few days short of her 10th birthday.

The father previously pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted aggravated battery of a child and served time in Graham Correctional Center before being released in 2007.

The child was adopted by her aunt, Debra Dycus of Edwardsville, who cared for her for about 10 years before Taylor died of complications of her injuries. In the time Dycus was caring for the child, she helped form the National Shaken Baby Coalition and is familiar with many such cases nationwide.

"I’m excited. I don’t know of any other case like this, and I’m pretty familiar with the shaken baby syndrome," Dycus said Thursday.

Madison County Assistant State’s Attorney Susan Jensen has been reviewing case law and appellate court rulings since the child died last February. She declined to go into detail of the possible double jeopardy aspects of the case but said that after review the case law, she decided it was appropriate to submit the case to a grand jury.

Taylor was born a normal, health baby on Feb. 6, 1999, but was shaken by Rogers at age 10 weeks because she was crying. The original case took place in Edwardsville and police Sgt. Dennis Gunderson signed off on the first-degree murder indictment returned Thursday.

Rogers was sentenced to 15 years in prison after prosecutors accepted a plea bargain. At the time, the child’s mother was not willing to testify against Rogers, attorneys said.

Taylor suffered severe brain injury and lost 95 percent of her brain function. She went to school to receive physical, occupational, speech and vision therapy.

Police were looking for Rogers shortly after the indictment was handed up Thursday. Associate Judge James Hackett ordered Rogers held without bond.

Dycus said she hopes the case will serve to support the cause of educating people about shaken baby syndrome.

"We’re ecstatic, and I’m going to fight until my last breath," she said.