Judge finds Liz Rogers guilty, 'not credible'

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Liz Rogers, once a prominent Cincinnati restaurateur, is now a convicted criminal.

Butler County Judge Dan Haughey found her guilty Tuesday of impersonating a police officer, a misdemeanor offense. She will not serve any time behind bars, but was placed on probation for a year and must pay a $150 fine.

Haughey said Rogers was "not credible" in her testimony last week, which he felt showed several inconsistencies with statements she made to police earlier this year.

The conviction is just the latest twist in Rogers' roller coaster saga, which started when Cincinnati city officials gave her $300,000 of taxpayers' money to open Mahogany's at The Banks. The restaurant opened to great fanfare in 2012, but Rogers fell behind on her payments in 2013 and never caught up.

The soul food restaurant closed in late 2014.

In an exclusive interview with The Enquirer last year, the Liberty Township woman opened up about her struggles as a small-business owner.

"It's not a crime to have a payment plan," Rogers said. "I am not a criminal."

Now she is.

She said so herself.

During her bench trial last week, prosecutors played a recorded phone call Rogers had with police a few days before she turned herself in. West Chester police officer Dustin Parrett called to get her side of the story.

When Parrett asked how she was doing, "not good" was her curt response. She struggled to explain the incident, telling Parrett she had no reason to pretend to be a cop. The repo man, she said, was "just pissed off he didn't get the car."

"If you impersonate a police officer, you're a criminal," she said in the phone call.

Although Judge Haughey found enough evidence to convict her, Rogers has vehemently denied the charge, even refusing a plea deal prosecutors offered before the case went to trial.

When asked then by an Enquirer reporter if she would accept the deal, which included an admission of guilt, she emphatically replied, "hell no."

Her conviction stems from a March incident where a man working for a repo company stopped Rogers at a West Chester Township UDF. This was the same day city officials forgave nearly two-thirds of her Mahogany's loan.

Justin Ohmart testified he followed Rogers from her home in Liberty Township and when she went inside the store, blocked her in to repossess her husband's Mercedes.

What happened next depends on who you ask.

Rogers acknowledged in court she gave Ohmart a wallet with a police badge in it, but said the badge is a gift she received from the Cleveland Police Department about 20 years ago when her sister, a police officer at the time, was injured in a car crash.

Rogers testified she didn't know her husband's Mercedes was up for repossession. She thought if she gave Ohmart her wallet as "collateral" he would let her go home and her husband could straighten everything out. She even said she pulled over twice on her way home to make sure Ohmart didn't get lost.

When prosecutors asked Ohmart to identify Rogers in court, she waved.

Ohmart testified Rogers told him she was a police officer and needed to go home to secure her weapon. In his profession, police officers are afforded some leeway in situations like that, he said, so he let her drive home.

That's where Clyde Bennett II, Rogers' attorney, tried to make his case.

When Rogers pulled into her garage and closed the door, Ohmart "lost the game," Bennett said. The defense attorney phrased it a number of different ways during the trial -- "he got burnt" and "his butt is in the fryer" – but the conclusion was always the same:

Ohmart screwed up by letting Rogers drive home.

"Once that happens, you have to talk to the big boss," Bennett said, raising his voice to mimic an irate employer. "That's when these criminal charges got legs."

Prosecutors didn't buy it.

"She is carrying this (badge) around so she can impersonate a police officer when it helps her," said James Fanetti, a prosecutor in Butler County Area III Court.

In March, it helped. On Tuesday, it was her downfall.