Lye-dousing victim faces attacker in Vt. court

[February 12, 2009]  CHELSEA, Vt. (AP) -- A woman whose estranged husband blinded and disfigured her by dousing her with lye faced him in court at his sentencing Wednesday, describing the painful torment of not even being able to see how badly he injured her.

Her voice breaking, a scarred and heavily bandaged Carmen Tarleton said she has physical and emotional pain every day, despite 45 operations, including 39 skin grafts and a cornea transplant.

Her now ex-husband Herbert Rodgers, a 53-year-old former medical equipment salesman, pleaded guilty to maiming in exchange for a 30- to 70-year prison term.

He apologized first to Tarleton's two daughters for having hit one of them in the attack and then told Tarleton: "Carmen, you didn't deserve it. I can't tell you why, I'm not going to get into it, but you didn't deserve it. I hope you get along."

The 40-year-old nurse and mother of two called her loss of eyesight the worst part.

"I can't express to the court how it feels to be called `unrecognizable' and you can't see it," she said. "I can't express to the court when you hear `These scenes are graphic, beware' and they're talking about me and I can't see what they're talking about."

In 2007, Rodgers loaded industrial-strength lye into a dishwashing detergent-style squeeze bottle, broke into her home and beat her with a baseball bat, fracturing an eye socket and breaking her arm, and poured the chemical on her, leaving her with burns over 92 percent of her body.

Police say Rodgers believed his wife of six years was seeing another man and went to the house intending to attack him. There was no man there, and Tarleton didn't recognize Rodgers at first. She told him he could have anything he wanted, believing he was a burglar.

When police arrived, he said, "I lost it. I just lost it."

Tarleton, who was hospitalized for months and remains under constant care at home, had wanted a plea to avoid going to trial.

Under the deal, the cap on Rodgers' sentence was set at 70 years. If the sentence had been 30-to-life, it would have automatically triggered a Vermont provision that requires an appeal, which neither Rodgers, Tarleton nor prosecutors wanted.

"He wants this over with," said prosecutor Robert DiBartolo.

Defense attorney Kevin Griffin said Rodgers suffers from a medical condition that makes it likely he will die in prison. He didn't identify it.

In the Orange County Courthouse on Wednesday, Tarleton shuffled gingerly across the courtroom floor to the witness stand, holding sister Kesstan Blandin's arm as she went. Her daughters -- 16-year-old Liza and 14-year-old Hannah -- watched from the gallery, along with her parents.

She said Rodgers, whom she has since divorced, had never assaulted her until the attack, which came four months after they separated. She said the cornea transplant had restored a modicum of sight to her left eye, but not enough to read or make anything out that's more than 18 inches from her face.

Outside court, Tarleton expressed satisfaction with the plea and sentencing because they will result in her never having to testify at a trial, appeal or parole hearing,

"It helps me in that I don't have to think about or worry about or be concerned about where he is or where he's going to be," she said.

[Associated Press; By JOHN CURRAN]

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