Tough-to-read news from the world of mixed martial arts today, as Minnesota fighter Brett Rogers is facing several charges of domestic assault after police say he violently attacked his wife Wednesday.
Rogers, 30, has been charged with third-degree assault, domestic assault by strangulation, a pattern of stalking conduct, all felonies. He was also charged with the endangerment of a child.
Official police reports indicate that officers were dispatched to the Rogers home in Apple Valley, Minn. at approximately 12:35 a.m. on Wednesday evening, when a caller reported hearing yelling, a female screaming and glass being broken from a neighbor’s home.
Rogers stated to police that he had argued with his wife and that she hit him during the argument, so he hit her back. Rogers had no visible injuries on his body. The report also adds that his breath smelled of alcohol and that he admitted to consuming alcohol that evening.
A neighbor reported that he had looked out his window and saw Rogers standing over his wife, repeatedly punching her in the head and face as she lay on the ground. Another neighbor stated that he saw her with blood “streaming from her face and mouth” with what looked to be a missing tooth.
Rogers’ nine-year-old daughter saw the incident unfold and yelled at her father to stop. Rogers’ 10-year-old daughter was also present and witnessed the attack, admitting that she had seen her father strike her mother in the past. She also reported that her father had struck the children within the last two years.
Rogers’ wife, T.R., was located by officers walking by a nearby school with injuries on her face that included a golf ball-sized bump above her left eyebrow, injuries to her ears and jaw, a missing tooth and numerous wounds to her neck and back.
She repeatedly denied that she was assaulted and said that she had simply fallen on the ground.
Paramedics were called immediately due to what were described as serious injuries to her head. She was transported to a nearby hospital and released the following afternoon.
Both children told a neighbor whom they had been staying with that they were afraid to go home and that their father had “choked” them in the past.
An officer attempted to speak with T.R. on Thursday, but she refused, telling him that the assault was her fault.
Rogers made his first court appearance on Thursday. His bail was set in the amount of $100,000, with conditions. His next court appearance is July 1.
Update:
According to UFC President Dana White, Brett Rogers has been released of his Strikeforce contract immediately.
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