KRON4

Family of Fairfield man accused of abusing 10 children say they’re horrified

Vince Cestone, Tamara Berry, and AP

The family of a Fairfield man accused of abusing his 10 children say they are horrified to find out the allegations.

On Thursday, KRON4 spoke by phone with the paternal grandmother of the suspect, 29-year-old Jonathan Allen.


Here is the full statement Peggy Allen gave to KRON4 on Thursday:

  • I’m horrified, appalled and deeply hurt over what has happened to my grandchildren.
  • My grandkids are innocent in all of this.
  • I had no idea this was going on.
  • The last time I saw my grandkids was four years ago in Vallejo.
  • The kids were with their Dad and appeared happy and they were not afraid of him.
  • The kids were clean with no marks or scars.
  • Last month, my son called. I had not heard from him in many years.
  • I asked him why he didn’t call more often so I could talk with he and the kids. He told me he was an introvert and he said the kids were fine.
  • If I knew the kids were being abused, I would have said something and done something about it.

Prosecutors say 10 children rescued from a filthy, abusive home were subjected to ‘waterboarding,’ shot with crossbows and had scalding water poured on them.

Solano County prosecutors included the details in a motion to increase the bail of the mother Ina Rogers, who was also charged with nine counts of felony child abuse Wednesday.

She has not entered a plea.

Allen has pleaded not guilty to charges of torturing his children and is in jail on $5.2 million bail.

Both had denied the charges.

Scott Roark, the information officer for the California Department of Education, issued this statement to KRON4 on Thursday:

The family you mentioned is reported to have resided at 2020 Fieldstone Court in Fairfield. We have no listing in our affidavit system for this address.

We are sickened by this tragedy and encourage everyone to report incidents of suspected child abuse. However, under current California law, private and home schools must register with the state, but the California Department of Education does not approve, monitor, inspect, or oversee them.

We will gladly work to make changes in the law that would prevent this type of tragedy from occurring in the future.

More information on homeschooling in the State of California can be found at: https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ps/homeschool.asp

Truancy and enforcement are district-level issues, where local school officials work in cooperation with law enforcement to address individual cases. More information can be found at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ai/tr/

Here is a statement from Allen’s brother-in-law and sister:

       

When we heard the news about the children we were appalled, disturbed, and saddened about what had occurred. We have not kept in contact with them for years. We hope that the children will be together and far away from these horrible conditions that they were kept in by the ones who were suppose to love, and protect them from harm. I am truly just shocked…

My mother and I heard from Jonathan last month, He seemed like he was doing good, happy and well. 

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