Ohio man sentenced to 3 years in federal prison for 12-year harassment campaign against actress Eva LaRue, her daughter

An Ohio man was sentenced to three years in federal prison for 12-year harassment campaign he conducted against "CSI: Miami" and "All My Children" actress Eva LaRue and her daughter.

James David Rogers, 58, of Heath, Ohio, was sentenced last Thursday to 40 months in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to two counts of mailing threatening communications, a count of threats by interstate communications, and two counts of stalking on April 28.

Rogers stalked, threatened, and harassed LaRue and her daughter — who was 5 years old when the threats began — starting in March 2007 and until he was arrested in November 2019, according to court documents. In a February 2008 letter sent to LaRue, he vowed, "I am going to … stalk you until the day you die" and repeatedly threatened to rape the actress and her daughter in other letters.

Approximately 37 handwritten and typed letters, all of which threatened to rape and kill LaRue and her daughter, were sent by Rogers between March 2007 and June 2015. Rogers also sent a letter in June of 2015 to LaRue's daughter that said, in part, "I am the man who has been stalking for the last 7 years. Now I have my eye on you too." Each letter was signed "Freddie Krueger," the fictional serial killer from the horror film series, "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

In the fall of 2019, Rogers escalated his stalking by calling the school where LaRue's daughter was a student. Prosecutors say Rogers spoke with a school employee, claiming to be her father, and asked if she was present. In another call, he left a voicemail in which he claimed to be "Freddie Krueger" and threatened to "rape her, molest her, and kill her."

LaRue and her daughter were forced to move several times, drive in circles back home, sleep with weapons nearby, and had to discuss how to get help quickly if Rogers found them and tried to hurt them, prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.

"They tried to anonymize their addresses as much as possible by avoiding receiving mail and packages at their actual address. To no avail," prosecutors said. "Each time they moved, [Rogers'] letters — and the victims' terror would always follow. And [Rogers] knew it."