Veteran hangs his hat

For many years, Carl Rogers has spoken for the dead. As a homicide detective with the Ector County Sheriff’s Office, he sought justice for victims of horrific crimes and cracked convoluted cases.

In recent years, he’s worn a different hat as chief investigator for the county medical examiner. But he still strives to bring closure to the grieving by interpreting the final moments of their loved ones’ lives.

“It’s kind of a cliché, but you’re sort of the last voice for the decedent,” Rogers said.  “He can’t speak up for himself. If somebody’s going to get justice for that person, it’s going to be that investigator. When you’re able to do that, there’s nothing more rewarding.”

But after 35 years of working in and around law enforcement, Rogers is turning the page. His retirement from the Ector County Medical Examiner’s office goes into effect Dec. 31.

Rogers said he plans to pursue “new challenges and new opportunities” but declined to elaborate on his future endeavors. Yet one thing is clear: Rogers, still a workaholic at age 60, is not ready to hang it up for good.

“I’m too young and too capable of working, and it wouldn’t be my lifestyle to sit on the porch and watch the traffic go by,” Rogers said.

Now the county commissioners are charged with replacing a man many regard as irreplaceable.

“Carl is probably one of the best investigators in Ector County,” Ector County Medical Examiner Dr. Nathan Galloway said. “It will be very difficult for anyone with his qualifications to be recruited for that position. He will be sorely missed.”

Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland called Rogers a “a true friend to law enforcement and the district attorney’s office.”

“I’d get calls from him on Sunday and at all hours because he wanted to make sure he did the right thing for the prosecution, for the victim and for their families,” Bland said. “He’s always been conscientious in his decisions about when to obtain autopsies.”

Though many colleagues said Rogers is a natural sleuth, it took him many years to follow the calling. In fact, a career in law enforcement is worlds away from anything he envisaged growing up.

At 20, he began a career in broadcast journalism, covering sports in the Permian Basin. Over the years as he migrated to spot news, he developed friendships with peace officers and saw firsthand what it means to wear the badge.

He eventually applied for the reserve deputy program under former Sheriff Elwood Hill and began working the streets part-time.

“I’d run into some people who would see me on TV one night, and then I’m arresting them the next night and they’re telling me, ‘You can’t do this. This is not what you do,’ ” Rogers said. “It was kind of funny from time to time.”

Rogers looked forward to the unpaid work and couldn’t wait to get off at 5 p.m. so he could hurry down to the station. After 10 years, he decided he owed it to himself to try law enforcement full time.

“I didn’t want to be 75 one day wondering what a career in law enforcement would have been like,” Rogers said.

One day in 1988, his valor was put to the test.

His unit responded to an emergency call in West Odessa where a man claimed to have been grazed by a shotgun blast. Sheriff’s deputies soon found themselves in a shootout with a drunken man wielding a 10-gauge shotgun, Rogers said.

He still remembers the swarm of pellets that knocked him into the street. Three of them are still lodged in his skull.

“In all those years in television, nobody ever shot at me,” Rogers said. “I remember that thought going through my mind. At that point, I just knew I was where I was supposed to be.”

The Sheriff’s Office thought so too and awarded him a Purple Heart for his bravery. From there, Rogers continued to rise through the ranks and began specializing in homicide investigations.

In 2005, the county found itself in need of a medical examiner’s department when Medical Center Hospital stopped providing the service. With so many years of experience under his belt — Rogers also served as death investigator for the Ector County Attorney’s Office — county commissioners regarded Rogers as a natural selection for chief investigator.

And Rogers was champing at the bit.

“When I came here in 2005, it was me,” Rogers recounted. “I had no secretary. I had no investigators.  I had no vehicle. I had no desk. I had no office. And this is where we’re at today, only four years later.”

Rogers said he infinitely proud of the progress of the department and the dedication of a staff that investigates some 1,200 deaths a year.

“Everybody’s touched by death,” Rogers said. “My people deal with it every single day.”