Officials From 5 States Map Strategy to Prosecute Rogers

Police and prosecutors from five states are meeting in Louisville, Ky., this week to discuss the best way to bring suspected serial murderer Glen Rogers to trial.

The meeting, organized by the FBI, focused Thursday on extradition requests by California, Mississippi and Louisiana, all of which have murder charges pending. Rogers has also been accused of a fourth slaying in Florida.

All the victims were women who allegedly fell victim to his rugged good looks and charming ways.

In addition, Rogers is charged with felony endangerment in Kentucky. Ohio and Kentucky authorities are looking into a body found in a Rogers family cabin in Kentucky, which investigators suspect may be that of Rogers’ one-time roommate in Ohio, a 72-year-old man.

The meeting was convened to exchange evidence and information on existing cases, to develop ideas for unsolved cases that might later be pinned to Rogers and to recommend an order in which prosecutions might take place, said FBI spokesman Ken Bowes.

Deputy Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino, who is prosecuting Rogers in the slaying of a Santa Monica woman in Van Nuys, said that representatives of individual states gave presentations outlining the strength of their cases.

Each state’s representatives argued that Rogers should be sent to them for punishment. For example, she said, Louisiana argued that Rogers, if convicted, would face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in a secondary murder case against him there.

California, she said, has a first-degree murder case against Rogers, but it does not carry special circumstances, so the state could not ask for the death penalty in the event of a conviction.

There has been some speculation that Florida will win the Rogers lottery, because that state is the only one with a death penalty case against the blond drifter.

“The decision will be based on who has the strongest case and penalties,” D’Agostino said.

The final decision on where to send Rogers, who first must stand trial in Kentucky, will be made by newly elected Gov. Paul Patton. Patton’s spokesman, Mark Pfeiffer, said that Patton will most likely follow the recommendation of the state’s attorney general.

Bernstein is a Times staff writer and Thomas is a special correspondent who reported from Kentucky.