News Release Nebraska Attorney General's Office
Yesterday in Dakota County District Court, Nathan Rogers, a 27-year-old former South Sioux City school employee, was sentenced after pleading guilty to two counts of Sexual Assault in the First Degree. Judge Bryan C. Meismer sentenced Nathan Rogers to 180 months in jail on each count to be served concurrently and concurrent to a federal sentence for the production of child pornography.
On or about March 3, 2021, the Nebraska State Patrol began investigating a complaint of a sexual assault allegedly committed by Rogers. The minor complainant alleged that Rogers, who was an assistant coach at the high school she attended, had forcibly sexually assaulted her in December of 2020. On March 26, 2021, investigators interviewed Rogers regarding the alleged sexual assault. During the interview, Rogers admitted to investigators that he had sexual intercourse with her. Also, during the interview, Rogers admitted that he and the minor had communicated through text messages from his cellphone. Rogers was arrested for First Degree Sexual Assault of a Child and Child Abuse. During the arrest, investigators seized Rogers’ cellphone and a search warrant was obtained on March 30, 2021.
During the investigation, investigators interviewed another minor female (“Victim 1” as listed in the Indictment). Investigators reviewed the downloaded information from Rogers’ cellphone and observed numerous video clips of Rogers engaged in sexual intercourse with Victim 1. Investigators observed the date stamp of the video clips to be between October 11, 2020 through February 20, 2021. Victim 1 would have been 15-16 years old at the time of the videos. In total there were around 23 videos which contained some type of sexually explicit conduct involving Victim 1 located on Rogers’ cellphone. Similar to Minor 1, Victim 1 attended the high school where Rogers was employed as an assistant coach.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Agencies involved in the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of this case include the Attorney General’s Office, Nebraska State Patrol, the U.S. Dept of Justice, and the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.