A jury has been selected for the trial of Caleb Rogers, a Las Vegas police officer accused in a string of casino robberies. The trial is slated to begin with opening remarks on Tuesday, with federal prosecutors portraying Rogers as a gambling addict who resorted to thievery due to mounting debts. The trial is expected to take a full week.
Rogers, 35, is accused of stealing roughly $165,000 in a string of thefts at Las Vegas Strip casinos over a four-month period. Prosecutors have discovered that Rogers was equipped with a police department-issued handgun during at least one of the heists.
Rogers’ attorney, Richard Pocker, has contended that the government’s evidence linking Rogers to two of the crimes is weak. Pocker has accused the FBI and investigators from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department of forcing two people, including Rogers’ brother, to falsely name him as the suspect in order to close the cases.
According to investigators and prosecutors, Rogers stole almost $85,000 in the first two thefts, which occurred between November 2021 and January 2022, while his fellow officers spent months attempting to apprehend the perpetrator.
Rogers allegedly committed a third heist at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in February 2022, stealing an additional $79,000. After a brief battle, he was arrested by security personnel outside the casino.
The parallels in the robberies have been underlined by authorities, with the perpetrator donning a face mask, dark clothing, and black latex gloves in all three crimes. The guy concealed the money in a bag beneath his jacket after obtaining it from cashiers. According to a police complaint, he then escaped to a disposable vehicle, walking with a peculiar gait and limping owing to a leg problem.
According to Mehmet Erdem, a hotel and casino operations professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, successfully performing casino heists is incredibly difficult. Erdem added that the possibilities of getting caught and recognized are high because of the casino’s sophisticated security teams, which include uniformed guards and undercover personnel, as well as advances in security technology such as facial recognition software and high-definition cameras.
Caleb Rogers was a seven-year veteran police officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, serving as an active-duty patrol officer at the time of the robberies. According to a department official, he is still working but is on unpaid leave with no police powers while the criminal matter is being resolved.
Casino cashiers, security guards, and Josiah Rogers, who identified his brother in video footage obtained by casino security cameras during the first two robberies, are among the witnesses in the prosecution. Josiah Rogers has been awarded legal immunity.
According to court documents, Caleb Rogers used his brother’s automobile in one of the robberies and then told him to dispose of it. Rogers allegedly parked an unlicensed minivan outside the casino and entered shortly before 7 a.m. in the third robbery. According to the criminal complaint, he donned body armour beneath his attire and carried a department-issued handgun with a yellow sticker covering the serial number.
During the robbery, Rogers hopped over the counter and challenged a female cashier in her 60s who was depositing $120,000 into registers from a bag. He shoved her and claimed to be armed with a gun. Loose banknotes dropped into the casino floor as he collected money and placed it in a disguised bag.
Security guards captured the guy shortly after he left the casino, with $79,000 hidden in his jacket. Rogers drew his firearm and asked the guards if they were willing to risk being shot for the money before one of them grabbed the gun.
When police officers arrived, Rogers allegedly identified himself by mentioning his department personnel number, which police officers regularly use to identify one another.
According to the criminal complaint, a detective later questioned Rogers if anything could have been done to avoid the crimes, to which Rogers answered, “Nothing.”
The trial will throw more light on Caleb Rogers’ charges and determine his legal fate.
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