Stalker Who Threatened ‘CSI’ Actress, Her Daughter With Rape Gets 40-Month Jail Sentence

A 58-year-old man was sentenced this week in Los Angeles to more than three years in federal prison for stalking and threatening actress Eva LaRue and her daughter for 12 years.

James David Rogers, of Heath, Ohio, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of mailing threatening communications, one count of threats by interstate communications and two counts of stalking, according to a Department of Justice news release.

He was sentenced Thursday in the U.S. District Court for Central California to 40 months in prison.

Between March 2007 and his arrest in November 2019, Rogers stalked, threatened and harassed the 55-year-old “CSI: Miami” actress and her daughter, who was 5 years old when the threats began, court documents stated.

Using the name “Freddie Krueger,” a misspelling of the fictional character in the film series “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Rogers threatened to rape, kill and torture LaRue and her daughter in around 37 handwritten and typed letters he mailed to the actress’ California house between March 2007 to June 2015.

“I am the man who has been stalking for the last 7 years. Now I have my eye on you too,” read, in part, one letter addressed to LaRue’s daughter in June 2015.

In October and November 2019, Rogers called the school where LaRue’s daughter attended and, while claiming to be her father, asked a school employee if she was present.

In November 2019, he again called the girl’s school and left a voicemail threatening to “rape her, molest her and kill her,” according to the news release.

LaRue told CNN that after the letters began arriving, she sold her California house and moved with her family to Italy, where they lived for several months with a friend.

According to the actress, she later returned to California and bought a new house under an LLC — a business entity that provides limited liability protection — to hide her identity, but she started receiving letters from Rogers at the new address as well.

“They tried to anonymize their addresses as much as possible by avoiding receiving mail and packages at their actual address,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “To no avail. Each time they moved, [the] letters — and the victims’ terror — would always follow.”

The FBI was able to identify and arrest Rogers in 2019 using a method called genetic genealogy, CNN reported.

The FBI took DNA from the envelopes of the letters sent to LaRue and ran it through a database. This yielded a list of the suspect’s relatives and led the FBI to Ohio, where they arrested Rogers after obtaining his DNA from a used Arby’s straw.

At his sentencing Thursday, Rogers apologized to LaRue and her family and said he is receiving mental health treatment.

“I sincerely apologize for what I did for the last 12 years, putting you and your family through hellish behavior,” he said to LaRue, according to CNN. “I accept full responsibility. I hope you can put this behind you and at some point never think about me again.”

The “Young and the Restless” star said that while she forgives Rogers, the fear his harassment caused will stay with her for the rest of her life.

“I forgive you, but I cannot forget,” LaRue told him at the sentencing. “The fear is with me forever.”

The Young & the Restless