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Questions surround suspect

There are things in life that cannot be known except by searching for clues left in the open.

Such as, is the man next door a monster?

This is the question that was not asked, that there did not seem to be a need to ask, of the man living in the pretty little house at 1519 Dorothy Drive in Boulder City.

The man is a 46-year-old schoolteacher named Charles Richard Rogers, whom everyone called Rick. He coached soccer and fostered children. He drove Deborah Berkheimer's little boy to school when it was raining.

He seemed to leave few clues in the open. The police reports of his arrest on dozens of child pornography charges allege that he kept them hidden.

The neighbors, some of whom had shared a quiet street with this man for a decade, who joked with him and said hello to him and never, ever wondered about what was going on behind his closed doors, do not know what to think now.

Take Berkheimer, for example.

"I am just sick over this," she said Saturday. She used that word a lot, "sick."

Berkheimer drives a minivan. She has a "Welcome" mat on her front porch. She has a 12-year-old son. She said Rogers gave her boy free soccer equipment. He was a quiet man, but friendly.

After the news broke the other day, she dropped her boy's picture off at the police station, which is what the police asked the public to do for any young boys who might have had contact with Rogers. They need help identifying his alleged victims.

Rogers is a science teacher at Garrett Middle School in Boulder City, but is on paid leave for now. He also worked for the city's parks and recreation department.

Over the years, he passed background checks, and so was allowed to be a foster father to two young boys.

The police reports state that officers found videos of him in his house doing sexual things with little boys. The descriptions of them in the reports, as printed in the newspaper, were enough to make Berkheimer want to vomit.

The reports say the videos show his face, the interior of his house, the arrangement of his furniture.

The house itself reveals no clues at all. It has a tree, full of green. A hummingbird feeder dangles. A couple of palms sway. There is a chimney, a nice coat of paint, a lush lawn, a pool in the back.

A woman answered the door Saturday afternoon. She was wearing makeup, appeared to be in her 60s. She had white hair and, on this day, sad eyes. She didn't say who she was.

She held up her hand, arm outstretched. "Sorry," she said. It sounded like her voice cracked a little. She closed the door, softly.

Birds were chirping in the distance, perhaps at the park a half a block away. The sound of a lawn mower drowned them out.

"If any of us knew, we would have definitely turned him in," said Donna, who didn't want to give her last name. She lives across the street.

She said when the news first broke nearly a week ago about Rogers, that the police found child porn photos in his house, not videos with him in them, there was not quite sympathy for him, but at least a willingness to forgive. He was sick, she believed, and needed help before it went too far.

But then, this? The awful accusations?

"It's a different thing altogether," she said.

She has grown children, and is certain they were never alone with Rogers. But that, she said, is not because he seemed weird or anything. It just worked out that way.

"If I had my son playing soccer, or hanging out over there," she said, her voice trailing off.

"How did we not see it?"

Nobody saw it.

Thomas Finn, the city's police chief, said even the cops who know Rogers -- it is a small town, so lots of people know him -- would not believe the charges at first. He seemed that normal.

"There's no way," these cops would say to their chief. "This can't be true."

And yet, the evidence.

There is so much of it, Finn said, that it will take "the better part of a week" to go through it all.

Rogers is charged with 72 counts related to child pornography. He is in jail on $144,000 bail.

The neighbors have not had time yet to get really angry, but they know they will. They said they are shocked. They said they don't know what to think. They don't know what to do now. They don't know what they might have done then.

Stephanie Sportsman lives catty-corner from the Rogers house, across the street. She moved in last August. She grew up in Gardnerville, south of Reno, and moved to Boulder City because it's a lot like that small town. Neighbors know the neighbors, it is safe from crime, the kids can grow up sheltered.

Except, now, she is not so sure. Now, because of what the police said about Rogers, she believes there could be monsters almost everywhere.

She was reading postings on an Internet message board after the news broke. Children, she said, were defending Rogers. They were saying what a nice guy he was.

She posted a response.

"What do you think," she replied, "a predator looks like?"

And that is the lesson here, she said. Even the super nice schoolteacher across the street could end up being accused by the cops of doing unspeakable things and leaving no clues in the open. The monster could be anybody.

She takes this as a practical lesson for parents, but also as a terribly sad reality to live with.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.

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