Allegations Against Navy Captain Dismissed as Ploy in Divorce Case

The unfolding saga surrounding the San Diego bombing earlier this year of Sharon Rogers’ van took a bizarre twist Friday with published allegations by a Georgia pilot that Navy Capt. Will Rogers III was involved in an extramarital affair that may have furnished a motive for him to try to kill his wife.

However, the allegations, published in a San Diego newspaper, were quickly attacked by the estranged wife of the pilot, H. George Marxmiller. In making the charges to FBI agents, Rebecca Marxmiller said, her husband was merely trying to “discredit” a witness in their upcoming divorce trial.

Authorities have never said they consider Rogers a suspect in the pipe-bombing of a van his wife was driving last March, an act that authorities at first thought could have been an act of international terrorists.

Three Paragraph Statement

In a terse, three-paragraph statement, Rebecca Marxmiller said the allegations by her husband “were motivated exclusively by a desire to discredit a friend of mine who may be a witness at my upcoming divorce trial.”

Neither Rogers, the former commander of the guided missile cruiser Vincennes who now supervises a Naval training school at Point Loma, nor his wife, Sharon Rogers, could be reached for comment Friday.

But in interviews last week, Capt. Rogers declined to comment about specifics surrounding the bombing, including Marxmiller’s accusations. He said he could only “dimly remember” the Marxmillers and that he had no clue why his name would surface in the Marxmillers’ Dekalb County, Ga., divorce case.

‘Disappointed, Unhappy’

The Rogers’ attorney, Pat Shea, said the couple were “both extremely disappointed and unhappy” about the allegations of infidelity that were published in The Tribune newspaper in San Diego.

“It’s created a lot of disgust,” Shea said.

Sharon Rogers narrowly escaped harm March 10 when her van was bombed at a La Jolla intersection as she drove to her teaching job at a local private school.

Federal investigators initially theorized that the attack was in retribution for Capt. Rogers’ mistaken order aboard the Vincennes in July, 1988, to shoot down a civilian Iranian Airbus over the Persian Gulf. A total of 290 people died.

Federal investigators, after hearing Marxmiller’s allegations against Rogers, turned their attention to the former Navy pilot as a possible suspect.

In unpublished remarks made last Sunday in a Times interview, George Marxmiller said he contacted the FBI and alleged that Rogers was involved sexually with Rebecca Marxmiller’s best friend and that the extramarital affair may have provided Rogers with a motive to kill his wife. This interpretation of events was published in Friday’s editions of The Tribune.

In considering Marxmiller as a possible suspect, the FBI has administered two lie detector tests to him and he has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in San Diego to provide two blood samples. Those samples are to be used to see if they match the blood type taken from saliva found on cigarette butts found outside the Rogers’ home.

In addition, federal investigators have taken his fingerprints and a photograph. Their investigation is continuing.

Denied Responsibility

Marxmiller has adamantly denied that he had any responsibility for the van bombing. His allegations against Rogers, he said, grew out of his belief that Rogers was carrying on an extramarital affair. Marxmiller said that he, his wife, Rogers and Rebecca Marxmiller’s friend shared a weekend together in 1987 in Portland, Ore.

Rogers has said he remembers meeting George Marxmiller only that once. He has said he is at a loss to explain why Marxmiller has made the allegations against him. Rogers also said he cannot explain why his name was listed with three dozen others as a potential witness for Rebecca Marxmiller in the divorce case.

Rebecca Marxmiller refused to be interviewed Friday night.

The short statement from Rebecca Marxmiller, provided to The Times by Rogers’ attorney, said:

“George Marxmiller and I are in the midst of a very bitter divorce proceeding.

Contact With FBI

“George Marxmiller has told me directly that his contact with and statements to the FBI concerning allegations against Capt. Rogers were motivated exclusively by a desire to discredit a friend of mine who may be a witness at my upcoming divorce trial.

“George Marxmiller has told me specifically that he has never had any suspicions about Capt. Rogers in connection with the explosion of his wife’s van. Rather, his motivation has always been to discredit this potential witness, and hurt me, in the process.”

The statement ended: “I deeply regret the involvement of Capt. and Mrs. Rogers and their family in this unpleasant divorce proceeding.”