Fulton man pleads guilty - Rogers’ motel ‘surgery’ led to charges.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Sep ... ews003.asp

By MIKE WELLS of the Tribune’s staff

Published Friday, September 10, 2004

Fulton resident Jack Wayne Rogers, 59, pleaded guilty today in a Boone County courtroom to first-degree assault and practicing medicine without a license.

Don Shrubshell photos

Jack Wayne Rogers, above, takes the witness stand today in Boone County Circuit Court before pleading guilty to first-degree assault and practicing medicine without a license. Nearly two years ago, Rogers met Madison Ambercrombie, 29, below, through the Internet and arranged to perform “gender reassignment” surgery. Rogers is serving time in a federal prison on a child pornography charge.

Nearly two years ago, Rogers cut off the male genitals of Madison Ambercrombie, formerly known as Michael, in a Columbia motel room.

Rogers, a former Boy Scout leader and church minister, looked directly at Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler throughout the judge’s questions about his guilty plea.

Oxenhandler then followed the recommendation of Special Prosecutor Kevin Zoellner by sentencing Rogers to prison for 17 years for assault and seven years for the illegal surgery. The sentences are to run concurrently, and they will run concurrent with a 30-year federal sentence Rogers received in April after pleading guilty to child pornography and obscenity charges.

Rogers also was convicted of federal child pornography charges in 1992 and served four months in prison. In addition, he is being investigated for comments he allegedly posted online about torturing and killing a missing Skidmore man.

Branson Kayne Perry, then 20, disappeared in April 2001. A police search of Rogers’ property turned up a necklace belonging to the Skidmore man. Rogers has denied killing Perry and has not been charged.

Public Defender Valerie Leftwich advised Rogers to plead guilty today because it was in his best interest, she said. "He is getting concurrent time with federal sentences," she said. "If he had gone to trial, he very well could have gotten consecutive time."

Rogers promised Ambercrombie that the "gender reassignment" surgery would take only four hours, but those four hours passed, and she was still under the knife, she said. Afterward, complications developed, and the bleeding wouldn’t stop. She has mixed emotions about the botched surgery, Ambercrombie said, because she sought Rogers out via the Internet to perform it.

"I didn’t know his motivation when I went into it," she said. "I was under a lot of emotional stress, and it seemed like there was no alternative."

At first, she didn’t feel like a victim, she said. But after prosecutors presented her with evidence of Rogers’ past criminal behavior, which included child pornography and allegations of cannibalism, Ambercrombie’s attitude changed. Prosecutors showed her pictures of Rogers’ child pornography collection and photos of severed genitals.

"What Jack Rogers did was not gender reassignment surgery," she said. "It was criminal. After seeing the pictures, I felt violated. I went home and took a shower. I felt dirty."

The nursing student said that she’s happier with herself today but that her ordeal isn’t over.

"This last year has been really hard," Ambercrombie said. "I still need surgery, and I’m going to proceed with that."

She shared her story with a circle of transgender women friends, she said, warning them of dangers they face by taking a nontraditional route to surgery.

"Obviously, what I did was very extreme," she said. "The right thing to do is go to a doctor."

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Reach Mike Wells at (573) 815-1720 or mwells@tribmail.com.

contrary to the case in Pennsylvania last year which had the sympathy of all the people involved - - this case is a nightmare.

Both Jack Rogers and Madison Ambercrombie figured prominently in the pseudo-documentary American Eunuchs that has been the subject of earlier comment on the Archive. Two threads concerning the film cover most of the important ground and help to place this legal case in perspective.

I would recommend that you first read the thread American Eunuch (http://www.eunuch.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=5221), which has some of the initial discussion on the Archive. Next read the thread that begins with Paolo’s angry letter to the producers at My Letter to the Producers of 'American Eunuchs' ( http://www.eunuch.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=5287). This thread also includes my letter to sociologist who consulted on the film, the producers, and various groups concerned with research ethics.

Honestly,

I see a lot of questionable posters here. I beleive that the authorities look for such idiots as this perpetrator in our midst and lurk here often.

I wish them luck and I hope that all of this calibre of numbskulls are caught before they can hurt someone.

As for the pseudo-journalists, they will move on when the sensationalism is over.

A-1

A-1 (imported) wrote: Mon Sep 13, 2004 6:32 pm Honestly,

I see a lot of questionable posters here. I beleive that the authorities look for such idiots as this perpetrator in our midst and lurk here often.

I wish them luck and I hope that all of this calibre of numbskulls are caught before they can hurt someone.

As for the pseudo-journalists, they will move on when the sensationalism is over.

A-1

The most logical way of preventing the numbskulls from getting started in the first place is to de-stigmatize the subject of castration. Unfortunately films like "American Eunuchs" have the opposite effect, as does the hyperbole surrounding the Fulton case. There for I have mixed emotions about law enforcement "lurking" on site. I am all for catching reckless people before they can harm others but I have little patients for the "news" stories that pop up left and right in the media as these cases proceed through the docket. The unfortunate reality is if we don't police ourselves it will be done for us, and on that count I feel we do fairly well.

A very dear friend of mine had her surgery by this very same man. And the procedure was also in a cheap hotel room.

There is often desperation on the part of the patient. Many are transgendered or transsexual women. Many non-TS people here have also sought out a cutter.

We do not often know the motivations for the cutter or anything else about him. If we are desperate, we will jump at the chance for a cutter to help us be rid of those horrid parts that we do not want.

I do not fault Madison Ambercrombie for utilizing him for genital surgery. As long as castration and sex reassignment surgeries are looked upon as dimly as they presently are, this will continue.

Can you really blame this young woman--Madison? I completely understand her predicament, and in my 20's, wanted to do the surgery on myself. Had I found someone that would do it for me, I see myself in this very situation. I am lucky because I was able to scrounge up money at a later age and have all of the surgeries done legally. Not everyone has money, though.

I wish her and my good friend the very best--they deserve it. Both require further surgery.

With tears flowing,

Kelly

There are fairly well established avenues for a transgender person to acheive sex reassignment. It is a bit expensive, and requires a lot of psychiatric visits, but for someone with such a deeply rooted desire I would think it would be worth it.

No transgender person should have to seek a cutter.

For other eunuch-wannabes however, it is much more difficult to get established medical treatment .. and so the cutting will continue.

my only comment is to compare cutting with abortion. When abortion was illegal there were literally hundreds of illegal practicioners and the proceedure was very unsafe. when you legallized it, the number of abortions in America actually declined as you had to go to a legal establishment and get legal qualified personel to perform this. And as the quality of the practicioner imporved, the safety (except to the fetus) improved. i do not advocate abortion, (i personally find it as murder in my eyes, but i am not female), but it surely is a lot safer now than it was. Maybe if the medical community warmed up to the fact that the world is not just black and white, and indeed there are many shades of grey, we would get to live our lives as we wish.