Though slain local TV host Scott Rogers was a “master manipulator,” his ability to adopt children in Louisiana despite facing accusations of sexually abusing children in his native United Kingdom is evidence that the state Department of Children and Family Services is broken, local media consultant Rannah Gray said today.
Gray has authored a book, released today, called Familiar Evil, which digs into the life of Rogers, who was killed in a murder-suicide in August 2014 at his St. Gabriel estate. The triggerman was Mathew Hodgkinson, who allegedly had been married to Rogers’ daughter in what was called a sham wedding.
Gray’s book paints Rogers, who hosted the local TV show Around Town, as a cunning predator who victimized young boys both across the pond and here in Baton Rouge, all thanks to a charming personality and quirky mannerisms. The author said she hopes her book serves as a cautionary tale of dealing with manipulative people like Rogers, as well as exposes the cracks in DCFS through which people like Rogers can slip.
“Our priority has to be on fixing a child services system that is very sadly broken,” Gray told the Press Club of Baton Rouge while promoting her book.
Gray’s involvement in the Rogers saga actually came years before the TV show host’s death. Gray said she met Rogers in 2011, when she and Rogers met with JoAnne Moreau, the city-parish’s director of emergency preparedness, about a public education campaign. Rogers apparently threw a tantrum in the meeting and complained to Mayor Kip Holden about Moreau, but the mayor backed Moreau. Gray said Rogers then leaked a story to The Advocate saying he had been forced to work with Gray’s communications firm, Marmillion/Gray, because of the mayor’s relationship with Gray. Gray wrote a letter to the editor to The Advocate calling the story false.
Meanwhile, over in the United Kingdom, a man found the letter to the editor while searching the Internet for Rogers’ name. The man, identified in Gray’s book only as “Ethan,” turned out to be a victim of Rogers’. He emailed Gray about the letter in August 2013, and the two began exchanging emails.
Gray eventually enlisted the help of Nathan Fisher, the late criminal defense attorney, and Mary Jane Marcantel, a respected paralegal in town, to figure out what to do with the startling revelations. “Ethan” eventually sent over articles about Rogers being tried in the U.K. on charges of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy who attended an academy Rogers ran. The trial resulted in a hung jury, and Rogers moved to the United States.
Marcantel did some digging of her own, finding a press release announcing that DCFS had honored Rogers for being a model foster and adoptive parent. Gray and Marcantel shipped off a public records request for Rogers’ application to become an adoptive parent in Louisiana to see if he had lied about his past. DCFS refused that request, claiming it was exempt from public records law, Gray said.
“While we totally understand the need to protect children, an application to be a licensed foster parent does not contain any information on that document about a child,” Gray said. “We really felt we should have had access to that information.”
A DCFS spokeswoman did not return a request for comment on Gray’s criticism by this afternoon’s deadline.
Further contact between Gray, Marcantel, Fisher and authorities both in Baton Rouge and in the U.K. led to a federal investigation into Rogers over whether he lied on applications for citizenship and to adopt children. A grand jury had been hearing testimony from witnesses the day Rogers was killed.
While part of the blame lies in DCFS’s hands, Gray made it clear Rogers was a “man who betrayed our community” by “convincing people he was something that was really the exact opposite of what he truly was.”
He had developed strong relationships with local law enforcement agencies, such as Louisiana State Police and the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, in an effort to cover his tracks and strengthen his reputation, Gray said. Rogers apparently used the same tricks in the U.K., according to Ethan.
“Some suffered financial losses because of him, and a lot of people left with the feeling of being duped,” Gray said. “But make no mistake of it: He was a master manipulator, and that really speaks to his effectiveness more so than anyone who should feel that they were fooled by him.”
—Robert Stewart
