By Adam Biggers
@AdamBiggers81
The Charles Rogers saga gets more unbelievable with each and every mishap.
The troubled former Michigan State Spartans star wide receiver and top draft pick of the NFL's Detroit Lions in 2003 reportedly threatened to kill his mother over $100,000, reports MLie.com's Andy Hoag.
Rogers, a former Saginaw High standout, was recently arraigned on five unrelated misdemeanor charges in a Saginaw court.
Hoag details information he obtained from a police report, which says Rogers conspired with a family member to kill his mother over the sum of money. Read it carefully, as it's quite lengthy and full of interesting tidbits that some may or may not care to know.
Below is Hoag's full report, which also outlines the laundry list of problems Rogers has had within the past decade or so. Thanks for the thorough report, Hoag. A very thorough report.
Charles Rogers, the former Saginaw High School star athlete and former Detroit Lions wide receiver, threatened to kill his mother if she didn't give him back $100,000, a police report alleges.
A multiple-page report written by a Michigan State Police trooper lays out how Rogers, 30, and his uncle, 51-year-old Ronie Rogers, came to face misdemeanor charges of making a malicious phone call to Cathy Rogers and conspiring to commit that crime March 5 and March 6.
Ronie Rogers on Thursday denied his role in the alleged incident and told The Saginaw News that he doesn't believe that his nephew was involved like Cathy Rogers told Coulter. Ronie Rogers appeared before Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank for a pre-trial hearing and continues to plead not guilty.
Charles Rogers, who surrendered to authorities last week, also has pleaded not guilty to the two charges and three other unrelated misdemeanors and is scheduled for a May 8 pre-trial hearing. The phone call and conspiracy charges both carry maximum penalties of six months in jail.
Charles Rogers told The Saginaw News at his arraignment that he had “no comment” regarding the charges and did not allow a reporter to finish a follow-up question regarding his mother. Cathy Rogers told The Saginaw News last week that she wants the News to leave her and her son alone.
The police report states that Cathy Rogers called police to report threatening phone calls from Charles Rogers, Ronie Rogers, and Ronie and Cathy's sister, Debbie Rogers. Cathy Rogers told the trooper that she was informed that Charles Rogers was in danger of losing his house and that after speaking to the individual who informed her of her son's troubles and telling him to call her son, she called her son herself and left him a voicemail message to determine whether the man called him, the report states.
Cathy Rogers told the trooper that her son then returned her call and began threatening her and demanding that she mind her own business, the report states. Cathy Rogers said that she then received a voicemail from Ronie Rogers, a voicemail from Debbie Rogers, and several voicemails from Charles Rogers, the report states.
The police report states that in a voicemail to his mother, Charles Rogers threatened to “blow her mouth out” and said that he was willing to do "the time” he would face as a result. The trooper wrote that she listened to the voicemail messages and that Charles Rogers identified himself.
The trooper wrote that she listened to the messages on March 6 and that the phone calls were made March 5. As the trooper was at Cathy Rogers' Bridgeport Township home, Charles Rogers called several more times, the report states. Each time, the trooper answered the phone, and Rogers hung up, the report states.
Cathy Rogers answered her son's call one time, and she told the trooper that her son said he was outside near her home, the report states. Police searched for Charles Rogers for 20 minutes but did not find him, the report states. Charles Rogers called again, the report states, and spoke with the trooper, who told him to stop calling his mother. Rogers indicated he understood but that he wanted his money back, the report states.
Trooper Jennifer Coulter wrote in her report that Rogers then left multiple voicemail messages on her office phone, indicating that he wanted his mother to return $100,000. An arbitrator in 2008 ordered Rogers to pay $8.5 million in signing bonus money back to the Lions for defaulting on his contract. That figure later was reduced to $6.1 million; it wasn't clear how much, if any, Rogers has repaid the organization.
Ronie Rogers told The Saginaw News that he believes Cathy Rogers “edited” both Charles Rogers' and Ronie Rogers' voicemail messages, either combining multiple messages together or taking portions out of context. Ronie Rogers said he believes that Charles Rogers never told his mother he was near her home because he was in the Detroit area at the time — also the reason Charles Rogers told Coulter he couldn't meet her at the state police Bridgeport Post, Ronie Rogers said.
Coulter's report states that she was able to match Ronie Rogers' voice in the messages when she met him in person, and that Ronie Rogers tells his sister to not involve herself in her son's business and that she “might just not make it out of this.” Ronie Rogers said he believes he may have made comments similar to that on the voicemail as long as five years ago, but that he did not leave his sister a voicemail on March 5. Ronie Rogers said he called his sister twice that night, speaking to her once for as little as 20 seconds before she hung up and not getting an answer the second time. Ronie Rogers said his phone indicated that he only made those two calls and that he didn't make the third call.
During his hearing Thursday, Ronie Rogers asked Frank, the judge, for a subpoena for Cathy Rogers' phone records. Ronie Rogers said he believes those records will prove that he did not leave the voicemail that day.
Frank said he believed Ronie Rogers' request was “reasonable” but said that he would order the production of the phone records at a later date, when the scheduled trial date is closer.
Coulter's report states that she and another trooper, whom Ronie Rogers says is Coulter's husband, traveled to Ronie Rogers' home at 102 Wisner in Saginaw to address the voicemail message. The report states that Ronie Rogers denied leaving a message and that he became “belligerent” when Coulter began playing the voicemail for him to hear. The police report states that Ronie Rogers demanded the troopers vacate his property and that he threatened Coulter.
Ronie Rogers told The Saginaw News that Coulter's claims are untrue and that he did not curse at or threaten her. Ronie Rogers questioned why, if he did threaten the trooper, Coulter's husband did not interfere in such a threat to his wife and why he was not arrested for threatening a police officer. Ronie Rogers surrendered to authorities after a warrant seeking his arrest on the two misdemeanors was signed.
The police report states that police were unable to locate Debbie Rogers, who did not threaten her sister but ordered her to not involve herself in Charles Rogers' business. Prosecutors have not charged Debbie Rogers with any crimes.
In addition to the charges from that incident, Charles Rogers is charged with possessing marijuana, possessing an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle, and operating a motor vehicle on a suspended or revoked license Dec. 2 at South Fayette and Dearborn in Saginaw. The charges stemmed from a traffic stop, and prosecutors also secured a warrant against Shaena S. Pershay, 27, also charging her with possessing an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle.
Pershay surrendered authorities April 5, the same day that Charles Rogers turned himself in. She pleaded guilty to the charge before Frank and was ordered to pay $167 in fines and court costs by May 5 or serve five days in jail. It was not immediately clear if she had paid the fine.
If convicted of the marijuana charge, Rogers would face up to a year in jail.
The December traffic stop was Rogers' third alcohol-related incident. Rogers pleaded guilty in September 2009 to operating a motor vehicle while visibly impaired after he was found passed out in his car in Novi, and in January 2010 was sentenced to 93 days in jail for contempt of court after passing out at a restaurant in Novi.
Rogers, who was a three-sport star at Saginaw High, excelled as a wide receiver at Michigan State University. He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft, but his career was cut short by injuries and subsequent marijuana use.
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