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Editor, News-Register:
For the record I thought Mike Myer's article following the death of my brother, Herb Rogers, was fairly tasteless and not entirely accurate. But it was an opinion piece, and everybody's entitled to their opinion. However that's not why I'm writing.
I don't think the facts surrounding Herb's death are generally known in the Panhandle region. Here is what I know:
I have seen the charging document, the charge being threatening a public official. Nothing I saw in the document really supports that charge. It talks about Herb being kicked out of a church, picketing the railroad, and putting a sign on the courthouse saying that he had the Wetzel County prosecutor in his crosshairs. The prosecutor affirms that he is concerned, but does not cite any specific verbal or physical threat. On the basis of that document, it looks to me like Herb was just exercising his First Amendment rights.
Herb had been in jail for close to two weeks before I came back to West Virginia to see him. My brother was an old and sick man. He had a heart attack a few years back and had stents put in. His lungs were bad and he was on oxygen 24/7. He had diabetes and was on insulin. He also was on blood pressure medication.
My visit to him was on January 21. He told me that he had received no medication or oxygen since being arrested. He said that his eyeglasses were confiscated and he was denied access to reading and writing materials. I could certainly see that he wasn't wearing glasses and that he wasn't on oxygen.
On January 22 I attended his magistrate hearing. He was transported, under armed guard, from Moundsville to New Martinsville without oxygen. He told me he still was not receiving medication and that he had not had breakfast because they had left too early. The next day I sent a certified letter to the jail warden with certified mail copies to her bosses in Charleston. The postal clerk in Moundsville told me the letter to the jail would get there tomorrow and the ones to Charleston the next day.
I never received a response. I'm a retired doctor and I sent the letter out under MD letterhead. I told them I was concerned that my brother would not survive jail under these circumstances. I went back home the next day. Three or four days after the prison officials received their letters, Herb collapsed in the jail with what was apparently a massive heart attack.
West Virginia has a rotten prison system. The Nazi culture runs deep … prisoners have no rights. Somebody should do something about it. I hope to see some of Herb's old friends at his memorial service in New Martinsville on April 22nd. That would have been his 80th birthday.
Jim Rogers
Cortez, Colorado