"Babies if you see this, your mommy loves you"@FairfieldPolice say 10 children were found living in "horrible conditions"

Children's 31yo mother Ina Rogers spoke w. @kcranews

Her husband has been charged with felony torture & child abusehttps://t.co/I9zwx8WLUI pic.twitter.com/RnYuWgtNQW — Vicki Gonzalez (@KCRAVicki) May 14, 2018

FAIRFIELD — It started with a mother’s report to authorities that her 12-year-old son was missing — perhaps, she said, because she took away his tablet computer.

But when police found the boy sleeping under a bush at a neighbor’s house, they said, they discovered he had fled something far worse: He and nine siblings, ranging in age from 4 months to 12 years, were suffering child abuse beyond imagination, with puncture wounds, burns, bruising and other injuries inflicted “for sadistic purposes.”

The two-story home where they lived with their parents — who have both now been charged — was littered with garbage and spoiled food and smeared with animal and human feces.

“It literally breaks your heart, and you’re outraged by how a parent or anyone could commit those acts,” said Sharon Henry, chief deputy district attorney for Solano County, in a Monday afternoon press conference.

The children described incidents of intentional abuse resulting in puncture wounds, burns, bruising and injuries consistent with being shot with a pellet gun or an Airsoft gun,” said Fairfield police Lt. Greg Hurlbut.

Jonathan Allen, 29, is charged with nine felony counts of child cruelty and seven felony counts of torture, Hurlbut said. Officers arrested him about 8:30 a.m. Friday after serving a warrant at a residence in the 2200 block of Fieldstone Court. He is being held at the Solano County Jail on $5.2 million bail.

Ina Rogers, 30, mother of the children, who was charged with child endangerment, denied the allegations in an interview on Monday.

“This is absolutely appalling,“ Rogers said. “I strive and pride myself on being a good parent to my children. … I am an amazing mother.”

Police found filthy conditions in the home shared by Rogers and Allen, Hurlbut said.

“Officers located unsafe and unsanitary living conditions including garbage and spoiled food on the floor, animal and human feces and a large amount of debris making areas of the house unpassable,” he added.

Police said earlier Monday that the 10 children had been removed from the home March 31 after Rogers reported her oldest child was missing.

Officers found the youngster a short time later “asleep under a bush in a yard of a nearby residence,” according to Hurlbut. Detectives from the department’s Family Violence Unit then started their own investigation and found evidence that the children had been subjected to physical and emotional abuse, Hurlbut said.

They arrested Rogers on suspicion of child endangerment and had all 10 of the children placed into Solano County’s Child Welfare Services. All of the children have since been placed in the custody of Rogers’ sister and mother in the Bay Area

Rogers was released after posting $10,000 bail on April 9.

She gave reporters a tour of her house on Monday, saying that the police had left a mess when searching the home.

She also denied that her husband had abused the children.

“My husband has a lot of tattoos,” Rogers said. “He looks like a scary individual and that’s why people are so quick to judge him. But absolutely not. My husband is an amazing person.”

Rogers, who says she got pregnant at 16 and has 11 biological children, said she feels she’s being judged for having so many children.

“Not only do I have 11 children — and I am 30 years old — but I also home school all of my children and people don’t agree with that lifestyle,” Rogers said. “So, I’ve had many people question my right to parent and I just feel like this whole situation was exploded.”

The children did not require medical attention when they were removed from the home. But stories about abuse came out gradually over the past six weeks and eight of the children told professionals about incidents dating back several years, authorities said.

Rogers told reporters she’s surprised police had leveled the most serious accusations against her husband, as he was not the disciplinarian of the family.

“There’s no broken bones, there is no major scars, nothing,” Rogers told reporters in front of her house. “My kids get bumped and bruised and scratched because they’re kids but that’s it.”

During the tour, the four-bedroom house in Fairfield appeared messy with scuffed walls and animal feces in the bathroom.

Rogers said the children slept in one bedroom because they were close; cots were stored in a bedroom closet. The other rooms were used as a master bedroom, playroom and meditation room.

On the day the children were removed, the house was messy because she had just torn it apart looking for her missing son, who was angry because they had taken away his tablet computer, Rogers said.

She and her husband both came from broken homes and they wanted a large family, she said. Rogers said she works the graveyard shift as an EKG technician at a heart monitoring company and her husband is a tattoo artist.

Child protection officials made one prior visit to the home several years ago, Rogers said. She did not say why.

Court records do not indicate whether the parents have lawyers. Messages left with the Solano County public defender’s office were not returned.

Aleida Quartman, 23, who said she works with Rogers, said she spoiled her children and the messy house was just life with children, cats, a dog and fish.

“She told me she’s never lived alone and now that her kids are gone and her husband is gone, she’s just a mess,” Quartman said.

Peggy Allen, the mother of Jonathan Allen, said she had talked to Rogers about the condition of the home, saying it was important to keep a clean house. Allen said she is estranged from her son and that he has kept his family away from the children.

“We’re a Christian family and Jonathan has not been raised that way,” she said.

Neighbor Larry Magnaye said he had no idea there were 10 children living in the house across the street.

The parents would wave when leaving the driveway, but he never saw the children in the yard or heard them playing in the backyard pool.

“It’s a pretty big house,” he said. “But I don’t know how you can keep it quiet when you have 10 kids.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.