Machete attack survivor, son sue prisoner

PALMER — The infamous machete attack that garnered Christopher Erin Rogers Jr., multiple lifetimes behind bars has also resulted in a lawsuit.

Elann Moren, who was one of the victims of Rogers’ attack in 2007, has filed suit in Palmer Superior Court and her son, James Lucas Moren, is listed as a co-plaintiff. The suit seeks more than $300,000 from Rogers.

While Moren survived the attack, albeit with grievous wounds, her fiancé, Rogers’ father Christopher Rogers Sr., died in the attack. After the family dog chased him away, Rogers continued his rampage, shooting three people in Anchorage and killing one, Jason Wenger, 27. In the end, after two trials and two sentencing hearings, Rogers was handed 498 years of prison time. Prison records list him as an inmate of the Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward.

The Morens’ suit was filed in November 2009 and has had just a handful of hearings since then. It asks for more than $100,000 to be awarded to James Moren, more than $100,000 to Elann Moren and punitive damages in excess of $100,000.

The complaint says that after the attack, Elann Moren was unable to care for herself and had to rely on her son for a lot of her daily care. Her son also incurred expenses buying “food, supplies and other necessities.”

When she first started talking to the media, Moren was in a wheelchair and undergoing physical therapy. Her son said in a previous interview that medical bills were adding up and his mother’s ability to pay them was dubious. She had too much money to qualify for state-funded insurance, but too little to buy insurance on her own, he said.

For his part, Rogers seems to have had trouble participating in the hearings, writing in a letter to the court that he can’t get through on the telephone number he was provided and has had trouble getting prison staff to understand the nature of his case and allow him to participate.

Since the suit is a civil case, he doesn’t qualify for a public defender, which is likely why the two legal filings from his side of things take the form of letters, handwritten in careful script, on yellow legal paper. In one of the letters, which the court agreed to accept as an answer to the Morens’ complaint, he disputes the claim brought against him and asked that it be proven in court.

“Previously enclosed in a letter to the opposing party was a mere donation to the plaintiffs for their troubles and in which is all that my gratitude can withstand,” he writes, somewhat cryptically, in that pleading.

“HAVE A NICE DAY” in block letters is used as a closing to both letters.

Court records show the case had hearings in Palmer court in mid-February and late March. The next hearing is scheduled for May 23.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.