Brandon Rogers at his sentencing for shocking his 7-year-old son with a Taser at their Springfield, Ore., home (KVAL/YouTube).
A 45-year-old Oregon man will spend decades in prison for torturing his 7-year-old son by repeatedly shocking him Taser as a form of discipline.
Brandon Rogers was sentenced Friday to more than 45 years behind bars after a jury earlier this month convicted him of nearly 60 charges including numerous counts of second-degree assault, first-degree criminal mistreatment and menacing.
The Springfield Police Department began investigating in September 2024 after it received a report about child abuse. The boy, then 7, had “multiple injuries all over his body.”
Cops determined Rogers and the boy’s mother, Heather Black, now 38, abused the boy on two separate occasions by shocking him with a Taser. But after reviewing surveillance video from the home, investigators learned the abuse was even “more heinous.” Video showed Rogers and Black “physically abusing their son multiple times a day for multiple days in a row using a Taser and other weapons.”
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They also “menaced” their 4-year-old daughter on multiple occasions with the Taser.
At sentencing, Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché further described what the boy endured. The boy was forced to remain in the “push-up” position while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner.
“When [he] starts to drop, Dad tases him and yells at him,” Zennaché said, according to a courtroom report from the Eugene-Springfield Lookout. “No adult did anything about it at any time, and it was shocking to me.”
The judge described Rogers’ actions as “deliberate cruelty” and “frankly torture” inflicted by someone who should have been giving his son “solace and strength.”
Rogers’ attorney blamed her client’s actions on a “very, very violent childhood,” saying he suffered “daily beatings from his own father.” Rogers plans to appeal the sentence.
The two children have since been adopted, prosecutors said, per the Lookout. One of the adoptive parents addressed the court, saying the children are “terrified to tell the truth when they make mistakes.”
About a year ago, they would curl up in a ball to protect themselves if they dropped something, because they feared a beating would be coming, the parent said.
One of the parents addressed Rogers directly.
“That sweet baby boy was tortured and ganged up on by both you and Heather,” the parent said, according to the Lookout. “You treated a boy who thought of you as a dad like an animal, a subhuman, worse than a prisoner in a jail.”
Black pleaded guilty last year to assault and criminal mistreatment and is serving a 15-year prison sentence.
The post ‘Frankly torture’: Dad shocked 7-year-old with Taser if boy dropped from push-up position while the rest of the family ate dinner first appeared on Law & Crime.
