Mark Rogowski

Case details

Mark “Gator” Rogowski was born in 1966 in New York City. He became known as “Gator,” described as a figurehead of professional skateboarding in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He was convicted in the state of California penal system for rape and murder of Jessica Bergsten. He was sentenced to consecutive terms of six years for forcible rape and twenty-five years to life for first-degree murder. His status was that he was sentenced to 31 years in prison on March 6, 1992. He was not to be eligible for parole until 2010 at the earliest.

Background

Rogowski was described as a charismatic, flamboyant personality who received fame and fortune during skateboarding’s return to popularity with the advent of vert skating. He was described as one of a group of proteges of ex-Zephyr team skater and documentarian Stacy Peralta, alongside Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero. He had endorsement deals with Gullwing and Vision, and his business card read: “Skate Boarder Extraordinaire”.

At a 1987 skate show in Arizona, Rogowski was introduced to skate betties Jessica Bergsten and her good friend Brandi McClain. Rogowski and Brandi entered a tumultuous long-term relationship and appeared together in skate-gear advertising videos. They also appeared in Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” music video.

Rogowski’s popularity declined as vert skating in the 1980s gave way to street skating in the 1990s. He converted to a strict Evangelical form of Christianity and changed his name to “Gator” Mark Anthony, saying Rogowski was the name of his father, whom he never really knew.

At the same time, he had mounting problems with alcohol and drugs. When his addictions began to take control, his mental issues began to show. He was diagnosed as severely manic-depressive upon entering prison.

Rogowski was described as praying and later offering a written statement at the January 1992 hearing, in which he described temptations to dodge responsibility and his “full, true repentance.”

The offence

Jessica Bergsten was reported missing after Rogowski had a day with her in San Diego, as she was moving to California. Rogowski said that on March 21, 1991, as she was putting on her shoes behind a couch and preparing to leave, he came up behind her and hit her in the head with “The Club,” described as a metal auto theft device which locks the steering column.

Rogowski said that after multiple strikes to her face and upper skull knocked her semi-unconscious, he dragged her to his bedroom on the 2nd floor and raped her for hours. He said it had been about “2-3 hours” and that he had done “the worst things sexually he could think of” while “venting all of his misplaced anger into her.” He then placed her in a surfboard bag because she began to get louder and because he was concerned about the neighbors hearing. He placed his hand over her mouth until she stopped breathing.

Rogowski said he drove out to the desert to bury her body in a shallow grave.

Another account described that on March 20, 1991, Rogowski beat 21-year-old Jessica Bergsten over the head with a steering-wheel lock called the Club and raped her for nearly three hours. He then strangled her in a surfboard bag and buried her naked in the desert outside San Diego. That account stated there were no witnesses, no one heard her screams, and the murder weapon was never found. It also described that he handcuffed her, carried her upstairs, shackled her onto the bed, cut her clothes off with scissors, and stuffed her inside the surfboard bag. It further described that Jessica begged him to stop and that, to shut her up, he pulled the surfboard bag from his closet and stuffed her inside it. It said she screamed that she couldn’t breathe, and it described strangling her afterward.

The offence included actions described as cutting, strangling, burying, and concealing evidence. Rogowski was reported to have placed Jessica’s body, cut-up clothing, the bag, the handcuffs, and the club in the trunk of his car and drove into the desert to bury her naked. On the way back, he tossed bloodstained clothes, his sheets, and the club out the window, rented a carpet steamer, and cleaned blood from the rug.

Investigation

Jessica’s disappearance led to a search. Her father, Stephen Bergsten, described as a Tucson lawyer, flew to San Diego to find her after she stopped calling. He plastered the county with posters reading “MISSING PERSON” with a picture of Jessica and her vital statistics: “five-eight, 115 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes, fair complexion,” plus telephone numbers for the San Diego police department. He talked to her friends and met with Rogowski to ask about her whereabouts; Rogowski said he did not know where Jessica was.

The account described that a poster remained plastered near a phone booth at a 7-Eleven two blocks from Rogowski’s condo, next to the beach with a pizza shop next door.

After a period without leads, the body was found, but because of decomposition, her identity remained unknown. Jessica’s body was described as found in the desert by campers on April 10, but could not be identified due to decomposition.

Police questioned Rogowski about her disappearance and found evidence at his home. The police searched his home and found evidence of massive blood loss, soaked through the carpet padding and into the floorboards in two fairly small spots adjacent to where her head had rested. The police also found a carpet-cleaner receipt.

Police announced Rogowski’s confession after he led detectives to where he had buried the body. The account described that he was uncuffed, stood under the hot desert sun, watched detectives dig around for evidence, and participated while local police were present and the site was photographed.

Arrest and confession

Rogowski confessed after being told by a spiritual advisor to confess. He was reported to have approached his “spiritual advisor,” described as an ex-surfer turned born-again Christian, who encouraged him to confess to the police and who Rogowski followed by waiving his legal rights.

Rogowski’s confession was also described as being preceded by his being moved by a poster of Jessica. One account described that after a Bible study at the minister’s house, Rogowski returned crying and said he was “Judas Iscariot.” It then described that “About a week later he came to me and said, 'Remember that girl in the poster? She was the one I killed!'”

The minister account also described a drive to the police department in early morning of May 5 and included a quotation attributed to the minister:

“Mark, you don’t need a lawyer. You don’t need innocent until-proven-guilty. What do you need a lawyer for, if you answer to a higher power? If a person is accountable to God, then he’s accountable to society - the Bible says that.”

Another quotation attributed to the same minister described the minister’s belief about legal advice:

“Mark didn’t come to me as a minister, he came to me as a friend. Anyway, I’m not an ordained minister.”

The confession and subsequent police search were reported to have generated press coverage, including a Hard Copy “dramatic reenactment” of the rape, murder, and subsequent confession.

The account also stated that Rogowski, after his confession, said he hurt Jessica to get a misplaced sense of revenge on Brandi, as Jessica was the “mold Brandi was made out of.”

Trial

Rogowski pled guilty. He was described as charged with “special circumstances,” committing a murder during rape, which could warrant the death penalty or life imprisonment without possibility of parole under California law.

Rogowski was appointed a public defender, described as John Jimenez, “glory seeker” and a short, stocky for mer PTA president who drives a Harley-Davidson. Jimenez challenged the validity of the confession, arguing that Rogowski’s minister had no right to turn him in. Jimenez appealed the rape charge, insisting that the decomposed body could show no signs of forcible rape. The account described Jimenez’s comments to a reporter, quoted as:

“Jessica was a ‘slut,’ claiming to have a long list of people with whom she’d had sadomasochistic sex, including the entire University of Arizona basketball team and a handful of pros - their names, however, were off the record.”

Jimenez’s quotation was also included:

“Hey,” says Jimenez, “it’s like Sam Kinison said, some girls just turn Mr. Hand into Mr. Fist.”

Eventually, when a higher court refused to toss out the rape charge, Rogowski pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and rape, thus avoiding the death penalty or life without chance of parole.

At the January 1992 hearing when he entered his plea, Rogowski submitted a four-page written statement that described his mental struggle before the crime, during its commission, and afterward. In that written statement, he admitted that although his original confession was “directed by the Lord,” in the subsequent eight months he had been “tempted to dodge responsibility, deceiving myself as well as others.” He wrote that he had now been “led to a full, true repentance, having nothing to hide. Thank God.” He also stated:

“I regret and my sorrow over our loss of Jessica”

The statement included quoted passages about his struggle, which included:

“Two months prior to the incident, I found myself in the midst of some surprisingly strange and almost uncontrollable feelings. All at once the plague of vile visions and wicked imaginations and the daily battle to suppress them was overwhelming. It’s no exaggeration to say I became completely enslaved to these devious mental images and inescapable thoughts....”

It further described his belief about causes and included quoted sections beginning with:

“Firstly, sex outside of marriage, i.e. promiscuity, premarital sex and cohabitation, the disease of jealousy, and the unhealthy obsession that so often attaches to these.”

and

“Secondly, pornography and its addictive character.”

and

“Thirdly, closing the ears and heart to God’s counsel, including partial or nonrepentance and disobeying and ignoring the Bible....”

The statement included rhetorical questions:

“So people, we must realize, without reduction, the gripping strength and deceptive subtlety of sin! What will it take for us to examine ourselves and listen? The tragedy of an innocent young woman’s death? The fall of your favorite celebrity? O.K., perhaps the imprisonment of your best friend or relative?....”

It included another passage about forgiveness:

“I know the Lord forgave me two thousand years ago on the cross at Calvary. And although I attempt to forgive myself daily,” wrote Gator, “the struggle over his ultimate culpability still raging in his head, “I haven’t quite been able and may never be able to do so.”

Sentencing

Sentencing took place on March 6, 1992. The sentencing included consecutive terms of six years for forcible rape and twenty-five years to life for first-degree murder.

A quotation attributed to Rogowski’s sentencing apology to Jessica’s family included:

“God has changed me, and it was no typical jail house conversion. I sincerely hope that they can accept my apology for my carelessness.”

In response, Stephen Bergsten shouted:

“He is a child-murderer and child-rapist. He is evil incarnate.”

Bergsten also said:

“Cowards die a thousand times and he will die a thousand deaths. He raped her and raped her and raped her and then thought, ‘Let’s kill her.’ We couldn’t say goodbye to Jessica be cause that filth left her with nothing but a piece of skin, left her for the coyotes and the goddamned birds to eat her.”

Bergsten also stated:

“I told you - and you remember, Rogowski - what would happen if anyone hurt my daughter.”

The account stated that Rogowski would not be eligible for parole until 2010 at the earliest. Another account stated he was eligible for parole in 2010.

Appeals

Rogowski was described as appealing his sentence and as being placed in a medical facility for manic depression.

Outcome

Rogowski’s outcome was that he received a 31-year prison sentence for rape and murder, with eligibility for parole in 2010 at the earliest.

Aftermath

Stephen Bergsten’s money-laundering charges were described as dismissed two months before the Village Voice account. Brandi was described as living in a penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side and working as a flower arranger. Jessica’s remains were described as buried in a family plot in Georgia.

On entering prison, Rogowski was diagnosed as severely manic-depressive. The account described him trying to surround himself with other born-again Christians in jail. It also described his visits to prison by Helen Stickler and his voice used in a documentary titled “Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator.”

In a prison interview account, Rogowski was quoted discussing alleged childhood exposure to pornography, stating:

“I had been exposed to pornography since I was a little boy, three years old.”

He said:

“In what form? In the form of sex, actual sex with people.”

He added:

“I’m not going to say who, but with people in my childhood.”

He also said:

“First let me say that it wasn’t only incest.”

He continued:

“I don’t want to mention family members, of course, because I want to protect them.”

He stated:

“But let me put more emphasis on the fact that it was babysitters and older neighborhood kids.”

He also said:

“If you believe that it was a revenge killing and that it was prompted by Brandi, I would say yes”

In that same interview account, he made statements about the nature of the assault:

“I did lay upon her with a steering lock at one point, but that was part of the S&M.”

He then said:

“The fact is that it wasn’t rape. It was more like an involuntary manslaughter.”

He also said:

“If it weren’t for my submission to her wiles and the temptation of having such sex with her...”

He stated:

“I don’t want to defame Jessica at all. I’m very, very sorry about what happened to her.”

He said:

“I just want to make it known that I was led into a sexual situation that I didn’t want to have anything to do with.”

He said:

“I wouldn’t have submitted if I didn’t have some weakness, some background desire.”

He also said:

“You can go down the street to Coronet bookstore in Oceanside and buy a vast array of S&M bondage magazines, pictorials, descriptive pictorials, paperbacks that are step by step about how to lynch somebody sexually.”

He continued:

“It’s pretty sick. I got a lot of ideas.”

He made further statements:

“That night, I didn’t realize what kind of a purring feline she was.”

He stated:

“It’s really hard for me to say these things about Jessica; we lost her and I don’t feel good about that.”

He said:

He also claimed:

“I was scared I’d be discovered with this wayward woman.”

He further stated:

“There were a lot of kids in my neighborhood, my prot6g6s in skateboarding who would have Bible studies with me.”

He said:

“For them to see me with this woman and all that had been going on - the wine bottles, the cigarettes upstairs - it would have been devastating.”

He concluded with:

“In my attempt to quiet her, in her intoxicated and belligerent state, I had put my hand over her mouth to quiet her for a second so I could hear the voices and the footsteps coming up my walkway. She must have suffocated or had a seizure or a stroke or something. The next thing I knew, I look down and she’s not breathing and not moving.”

Other details

Rogowski was described as calling his name “Gator” and changing his name to “Gator” Mark Anthony. He also described that “Jesus could solve his problems” and that psychiatry was discouraged by the sect he was involved with.

Brandi McClain was described as leaving Rogowski after his celibacy beliefs before marriage.

The account also stated that Brandi’s best friend was Jessica Bergsten. It further described that Brandi and the police suspected Rogowski in a break-in at Brandi’s home, and that it was described as “typical” of a teenage stunt in which someone attempts to get items back after a relationship ends.

A quotation attributed to Brandi included:

“Mark was crazy,” says Brandi. “He was calling me up leaving all these freaky messages. He’d growl. ‘You bitch! You cunt! You’re gonna fry in hell from your toes!’ Weird shit like that.”

Another Brandi quotation was:

“We literally had sex five times a day, we were so in love. Then he met Augie and started saying, ‘We can’t have sex anymore unless we get married.’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. We’ve been going out for four years, having mad sex for four years, and we can’t have sex anymore? I can’t deal with this. Later.’”

A further quote attributed to Brandi was:

“Everything that I hated about Brandi, I hated about Jessica,” Gator would later tell the police.

The account described that Jessica’s father, Stephen Bergsten, had indicted him as part of a nationwide drug ring eight months earlier, and described that his money and property in two states had been seized by the government. The sentencing hearing included mention that Bergsten’s wife, Kay, would attend the hearing.

The record also described that Rogowski’s sentencing included the use of hand-held metal detectors for observers, and that bailiffs were used because of information that Stephen Bergsten was going to try to harm Rogowski.