Brett Rogers gets 60 days in jail for beating wife

[keithlewis]

http://www.twincities.com/ci_19439722


A heavyweight mixed martial artist apologized Wednesday in court for beating his wife at their Apple Valley home, breaking her jaw and knocking out a tooth.

"I apologized before and I apologize again," said Brett "Da Grim" Rogers. "It was just one of those nights, you know. Ever since that night, it's been hell for me, you know."

But Dakota County District Judge Karen Asphaug said the 30-year-old's attack against his wife, Tiuana Rogers, was more than just a bad night. Asphaug sentenced Brett Rogers to 60 days in jail and three years probation for a night she described as a "horror."

"When you say it was just a bad night, you minimize the horror of the night," Asphaug told Brett Rogers. "I read about the events of that night and I'm filled with horror about Mrs. Rogers sustaining an injury that I'm sure was excruciatingly painful."

Brett Rogers pleaded guilty to felony third-degree assault. On Wednesday, he requested a lesser sentence than recommended by state guidelines for the offense. But Asphaug said there weren't substantial or compelling reasons to depart from the guidelines.

As part of probation, Brett Rogers cannot have contact with his wife until he completes a domestic abuse program and his probation officer approves the contact. He also cannot use alcohol and drugs. If he successfully completes probation, the offense will be reduced to a misdemeanor.

Brett Rogers received credit for 26 days served in jail. He'll serve at least two-thirds of
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the jail sentence, which means he has about 14 days remaining, Asphaug said.

As part of the plea deal, two felonies of domestic assault by strangulation and stalking were dismissed, as well as a gross misdemeanor charge of endangering a child.

Brett Rogers plans to participate in a fight Dec. 31, his attorney Murad Mohammad said in court. Asphaug said Brett Rogers can travel for work. However, she denied a request by his attorney to postpone his jail sentence until after the fight to train for the event.

Tiuana Rogers spoke before the sentencing, pleading with the judge to let her husband come home. She said the whole experience has taught her and Brett Rogers a lesson.

"If you allow him to come home, things will be so much better," said Tiuana Rogers, 30, who declined to speak after court. "I've learned a lot of things since this incident."

Records show the couple has been married since 2005.

The attack happened in the early morning of June 28, according to a criminal complaint. A neighbor called police and said he saw Rogers punch his wife as she lay on the ground.

When Brett Rogers met police in his driveway, he told them that his wife hit him during an argument and that he struck back at her, the charges said. Brett Rogers was not visibly injured. His speech was slurred and his breath smelled of alcohol, police said.

Officers later found the woman walking by a nearby school. Her face was covered in blood and she was missing a tooth and had a "golf ball-size lump" above her left eyebrow, among other injuries, the complaint said. She told authorities her husband became angry during their argument and attacked her, causing her to black out.

Tiuana Rogers also sustained a broken jaw from the attack, Asphaug said.

The couple's children, who went to a neighbor's after the incident, said that they were afraid to go home and that their father had choked them before, the complaint said.

Brett Rogers is a 6-foot-4, 270-pound heavyweight fighter who competed for Strikeforce, a mixed-martial arts and kickboxing organization based in San Jose, Calif. He lost his pro contact after the assault charges were filed, Mohammed said.

Strikeforce discovered Brett Rogers while he was working at Sam's Club in 2009 changing tires, Mohammed said. But shortly after joining the group, he began losing fights. Since November 2009, records show that Brett Rogers has lost four-out-of-five fights.

"I know a lot of people are rooting against him," Mohammed said. "People need to know that Brett is a gentle loving and caring person with faults like anybody else."

Brett Rogers is scheduled to appear in Dakota County court again Jan. 19 on allegations he violated his conditions for release by contacting his wife and pushing a man at Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Apple Valley, according to criminal complaints.

He faces a gross misdemeanor and two misdemeanors in those cases.