Victims’ Families Say Hunting Accidents Treated Too Lightly, Take Cases to Court : Safety: Persisent relatives refuse to let incidents fade away, press for justice with investigations and suits.

A blast from a hunter’s shotgun killed his son two years ago, but when no one came forward to accept responsibility, Martin C. Rogan knew what had to be done.

“My son was the type of kid who would have said to me: ‘Find out who killed me and don’t let this go,’ ” said Rogan, his eyes filling with tears.

“I felt an extreme responsibility to learn what happened,” he said.

Jack C. Rogan was found dead in the woods a few hundred yards behind his rural eastern Connecticut home on Nov. 25, 1988, the second day of the deer hunting season. A single pellet of buckshot had struck the 26-year-old in the neck and penetrated the lower part of his brain, an autopsy showed.

Tormented by the unanswered questions about their son’s death, and embittered by the belief that a hunter knew of his deadly mistake but didn’t want to confess, Martin and Betty Rogan doggedly pursued the case.

They offered a $15,000 reward, hired a private investigator, wrote to political leaders, unsuccessfully sought a grand jury investigation, and finally took a suspect to court in a civil case. The man, a neighbor of Jack Rogan’s, refused to respond to more than 100 questions, asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The Rogans’ persistence paid off. Two men were arrested in October, including the neighbor, after state police detectives followed up a tip the Rogans received in August from an anonymous telephone caller.

Only 10 days before Jack Rogan’s death, a woman in Maine, Karen Wood, was killed by a hunter in an accident that focused national attention on the dangers that each hunting season brings.

The Rogans became good friends with Wood’s husband, Kevin Wood, and attended the manslaughter trial last month of the man who shot his wife. The trial ended with an acquittal.

“He could understand our feelings and we could understand his,” Rogan said.

The danger of hunting season was brought home in Pennsylvania when that state’s small-game season opened in late October. Three hunters were fatally shot during turkey-hunting accidents on opening day alone.

“Unfortunately, the key to these accidents is that people are not positively identifying their targets,” said Jim Filkosky, who is in charge of hunter education for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

In the Rogan case, police allege a young man hunting illegally shot Jack Rogan and fled before police arrived, letting his hunting companion cover up for him.

Michael Wisniewski Jr., 23, was charged with first-degree manslaughter. Police said he did not have a hunting license, was using buckshot, which is illegal in Connecticut, and fired the fatal shot after the close of the legal shooting time.

Richard P. Gorman, 41, who lives two houses down the road from the Rogan house, was arrested on a charge of hindering prosecution.

Police contend that Wisniewski mistook Rogan for a deer and shot him and that Gorman made up a story to protect him. Gorman, who is married to Wisniewski’s cousin, told police he was hunting alone just before sunset when he heard shots and discovered the body.

Both Wisniewski and Gorman plan to plead not guilty to the charges, their lawyers said.