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Mundelein man says he participated in attack to hide affair

A former Mundelein man who admitted a decade ago to helping attack the father of his then-14-year-old girlfriend testified Monday he agreed to do it to hide a sexual relationship he was having with the girl's mother.

As the attempted murder trial of Sandra Rogers enters its second week, Jonathon McMeekin told a Lake County jury he had been having sex with Rogers for about six months when she asked him to attack her ex-husband.

McMeekin said that while intoxicated about 1:30 a.m. on May 19, 2003, he refused to attack Rick Rogers. However, he said, Sandra Rogers threatened to tell Robin Rogers — her daughter and his girlfriend — about the affair.

“She said if I didn't go with her, she said she would tell Robin I was having sex with her,” said McMeekin, who was 17 at the time of the attack. “I decided to go with her because I didn't want Robin to know.”

McMeekin has served 10 years of a 20-year prison sentence he received after he pleaded guilty in 2004 to two counts of attempted murder for his role in the attack on Rick Rogers and his wife, Angela Gloria.

He is expected to continue his testimony Tuesday.

Sandra Rogers is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and home invasion, and has also spent the last 10 years in prison after accepting a 2004 plea deal. However, that deal was thrown out of court last year when Lake County Judge John Phillips ruled she was tricked into admitting her role in the crime, paving the way for the trial.

She remains in jail on a $4 million bond.

Rick Rogers testified last week he jumped on McMeekin after McMeekin hit Gloria in the doorway of their bedroom just before 5 a.m. Rick Rogers said that, while he was holding down McMeekin, he was hit from behind by a sledgehammer.

Defense attorneys contend Sandra Rogers was not the person who delivered the blow, and insist Robin Rogers assisted McMeekin in the crime.

Robin Rogers denied any role in the attack during her testimony last week.

Gloria also testified Monday that she didn't remember anything about the event until she woke up in the hospital. She said she had extensive surgery after the attack.

“I called myself peanut head because of the indentation I had in my head,” she told the jury. “I had nine plates in my head at one time.”

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