House Guest Convicted of Molesting Girls

May 20, 2022 – A West Memphis man who was living temporarily with a friend in 2018 in North Memphis was convicted Friday of sexually abusing the friend’s three young daughters and a niece, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A Criminal Court jury convicted 54-year-old Rodger A. Bridges, aka Roger Bridges, on rape of a child, rape, three counts of aggravated sexual battery, and sexual battery. He remains in the Shelby County Jail and will be sentenced in July by Judge W. Mark Ward.

The incidents - involving children between ages 6 and 15 - occurred between January and June of 2018 at the friend’s home on Pope Street south of Jackson Avenue.

The father reported to police that his 11-year-old daughter told him Bridges had been fondling and sexually molesting her and her sisters and cousin since he had moved into the home with his wife. The four victims all testified in the trial.

The case was handled by Asst. Dist. Attys. Devon Dennis and Gavin Smith of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit (SVU) which prosecutes cases involving child victims of rape, sexual abuse, and severe physical abuse, as well as elder abuse and vulnerable adult abuse. The SVU was created as an expansion of the multi-agency Child Protection Investigative Team (CIPIT).