Trial opens Tuesday in child sex abuse case

By Holbrook Mohr
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A man charged with having sex with a girl who was about 3 years old at the time is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in federal court in Jackson.

Marco Laquin Rogers, 27, was charged in October after authorities said they found a video of him and another man having sex with the girl in a Jackson hotel room. The video, which investigators believe was made in May 2012, shows the girl crying out in pain as she’s assaulted, according to an affidavit filed in court records.

Another suspect in the case, Jemery Atral Hodges, has pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 30.

Both men were indicted Nov. 7 on two counts each — sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and selling or buying of children.

The sex trafficking charge in the indictment says the men transported the child “knowing that she would be caused to engage in commercial sex acts.” The other charge says they coerced a minor to engage in “sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction.”

The trafficking charge carries a penalty of 15 years to life in prison. The second charge is punishable by 15 to 30 years in behind bars.

Court records say the investigation began on Sept. 6, 2012, in Cambridge, Mass., after Hodges visited another man and showed him explicit images of children on his cellphone. The man kicked Hodges out of his house and called police, court records said.

Hodges told authorities Rogers had access to a 3-year-old girl for sexual acts, according to an affidavit filed in court records.