BANGOR, Maine — A Fort Fairfield man who worked with an Aroostook County afterschool program pleaded not guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to possession of child pornography.
Jake B. Rogeski, 24, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury.
He was released Tuesday on $5,000 unsecured bond.
A trial was tentatively set for Aug. 7 but most likely would not be held until late this year or early next year.
Rogeski was charged in September 2011 in Aroostook County with possession of sexually explicit material and has requested a trial on the state charge.
Sgt. Glenn Lang of the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit said at the time of Rogeski’s arrest that his unit spent several days in The County investigating a tip that ultimately led to a search of Rogeski’s residence.
Lang said investigators discovered a number of images, including 15 video clips, in Rogeski’s possession, according to a previously published report. Lang said the children in the images appear to be between 5 and 7 years old. Police do not believe that any of the victims are from the local community.
Rogeski was employed by SAD 20 to assist with its 21st Century After School program but resigned after the investigation began, according to a previous report. Students in the program receive help with their homework, are given healthful snacks and participate in other programs to help them excel academically and socially.
Rogeski had worked in the program for three or four years with children in grades three to six, district officials have said.
Under federal law, Rogeski faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Under state law, he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
A conviction in either court would require him to register as a sex offender.
The federal indictment calls for Rogeski to forfeit his laptop and hard drive on which the child pornography allegedly was found.
His bail conditions on the federal charge are nearly identical to those on the state charge. Rogeski may not have unsupervised contact with minors, use a computer unless it is connected to a monitoring device, must seek mental health counseling and must not commit new crimes. Under his federal bail conditions, Rogeski may not possess firearms and, now that he has been indicted, must not sell his guns.
BDN reporter Jen Lynds contributed to this report.
Sad and just plain SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe it’s about time to reevaluate the hiring process for teachers?
They are fingerprinted and have to go through a police backgroundcheck.What more do you want? Most jobs don’t have those requirements.
That is not up to me to figure out the best hiring process, but it is up to me as a parent to want to make sure that as many of these people are weeded out before hand.
Police officers in most departments have to take a polygraph test before hiring. Why not have these people trusted with children do the same thing. Ask them pointed questions about sexually deviant behavior. If it’s good enough for law enforcement it should be good for teachers. Remember they are not being tried in court but if the test doesn’t show good results don’t hire them.
Polygraphs aren’t science; I’d never submit to a parlor trick as a condition of employment.
while I agree with you that more should be done to keep people like this away from our children, unless they have been convicted on a similar incident then the background checks and finger printing that is done will do no good. Unfortunately these people seem to blend right in with the rest of the population and are notoriously difficult to weed out until they have been caught once and are registered.
It will never happen teachers union is to strong. They should have to be drug tested and background checks when they are hired and do random drug testing and child abuse testing. Every year.
Actually Mr. Rogeski was not a teacher but an aide in an after school program. Unfortunately today in society it is starting to be hard to not look twice at all who work with children as the old saying is true “A few rotten apples can spoil the whole basket” just because they are in contact with each other and people tend to group them all together. I hope that everyone is watching their children diligently these days as you never know who wants to take advantage and or hurt them forever by their perverse action. Could be your closet friend or an innocent looking Jerry Sandusky type, you just never know.
WOW is it just me or do we seem to be catching more and more school workers with child porn? We spend Trillions to fund programs of every type but can not get a decent background check process for those who are in our schools?