Staff photo / Ed Runyan Defense attorney Carlo Ciccone helped Roge E. Berger, 37, of Liberty, adjust the microphone before Berger offered remarks to Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Sean O’Brien before O’Brien sentenced Berger to 10 to 15 years in prison Wednesday for assaulting and robbing a pregnant nurse in the parking lot of the former Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren.

WARREN — Roge E. Berger, 37, of Ventura Drive in Liberty, was sentenced to 10 to15 years in prison Wednesday for the Sept. 15, 2024, felonious assault and aggravated robbery of a pregnant nurse outside the former Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren.

Berger pleaded guilty to the two charges March 12 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Burnett told Judge Sean O’Brien that the prosecutor’s office believes this incident was “one of the most deplorable crimes that we have seen in recent history.”

Burnett recommended that Berger get the maximum sentence.

A Warren police report stated that officers responded to the East Market Street hospital for a man assaulting a pregnant nurse and trying to take her vehicle. Police stated that the suspect fled the scene and was later found walking on South Street, where he was taken into custody.

The report states that officers went to the hospital, where a nurse said she heard a loud vehicle horn in the parking lot, saw what was happening and called 911.

When officers spoke to the victim, she was being treated by emergency room personnel for injuries to her face and head. Staff also checked the health of the baby.

The victim said she was in the driver’s seat of her vehicle when the man came to the vehicle door and forcefully pulled her out of the vehicle. She said she pushed him, and he fell to the ground.

She tried to get back into the vehicle and lock the door, but the man grabbed her by the head, slammed her head on the vehicle, then grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the face numerous times. She said she reached into the car and sounded the horn and yelled for help. The suspect fled when a security guard and others arrived.

Doctors had to induce labor because of her injuries, but the baby and mother were doing well, according to a social media post on a Gofundme page created by the victim’s mother. The baby was due Sept. 27, 2024. The post stated that her daughter was punched in the head more than 20 times, but she “fought him off, protecting her baby the best she could from an attack that lasted almost five minutes.”

PROSECUTOR

Burnett said the prosecutor’s office spoke to the victim, who did not wish to attend the sentencing hearing, but she gave a statement to the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department, and her remarks were represented in the presentence report provided to O’Brien and the attorneys prior to the sentencing hearing.

Berger’s attorney, Carlo Ciccone, told O’Brien that it is “well documented that Mr. Berger was having an incident that evening, and that certainly doesn’t excuse the behavior that came out of it.”

He said, however, “This is not normally the type of person he is.” Ciccone asked for Berger to get the minimum sentence.

Berger spoke, apologizing to the victim and said he hoped for “some leniency. I don’t … get in trouble or nothing, and this is my first time being in trouble.”

O’Brien responded by saying, “Mr. Berger, you came in both feet when you caused the trouble you caused,” adding, “The fact that you punched a pregnant woman in the head and tried to steal her car when she was nine months pregnant … appalls the court that you would do something like that. You caused serious physical harm to her.”

MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATIONS

On Oct. 2, 2024, Berger pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and Ciccone filed a motion to determine whether Berger was competent to stand trial, according to the docket in Berger’s case, which also mentions that other, similar evaluations also were conducted.

There is no mention of the results of the evaluations in online court documents. The next entry was when Berger pleaded guilty to both counts in his indictment in March, 17 months after his first evaluation was requested.

Berger got credit for 606 days served in the Trumbull County jail toward his prison sentence.