A Denver City Council candidate was indicted in 1981 for kidnapping, according to court records.
Mark Roggeman, a veteran of the Denver Police Department since 1971, was one of 10 people named by a grand jury for kidnapping 22-year-old Emily Deitz because of her association with a religious organization.
The court record has since been sealed, but Roggeman said he was involved in the case because of his long-time interest in freeing reluctant cult members.
The case ended in a mistrial after Deitz spoke with a witness. It was never retried.
Roggeman said the charges were dismissed.
He returned to the police force after being suspended and worked as a patrolman in southwest Denver from 1985 to 1992, when he was promoted to his current position of community resource officer.
Roggeman said he was trying to help Deitz’s parents, who feared for their daughter’s life.
“She had written a letter to her parents and said, you know, ‘I’m on the verge of suicide,”‘ he said.
Roggeman said he helped find Deitz but was not present when she was taken.
The Denver Post reported at the time that Emily Deitz was pulled “struggling and screaming” into a van by four men working for her parents, held under guard at a home in Colorado Springs for a week and forced onto a flight to Ohio. After being held there for six days, she jumped out of a second-story window and escaped.
Roggeman and others faced second-degree felony charges for kidnapping and conspiracy as well as a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment.
Reached Monday, Deitz said the incident was a kidnapping, not a rescue.
“I was forced against my will into a situation I didn’t want to be in,” she said. “I wasn’t unhappy with my lifestyle at the time. I probably wouldn’t be in that same lifestyle now, but we all do different things.”
Deitz said the incident was the third time her parents had organized taking her against her will.
She was affiliated with the Divine Light Mission, a group that worshiped Guru Maharaj Ji as the “Perfect Master.”
Roggeman, one of seven candidates running for an open City Council seat in District 3, has a well-documented history working to pursue cult members in his spare time. He estimates that he has successfully counseled “more than 200” people.
He said the Deitz case has always stuck out to him not only because of the charges but also because of Deitz’s letter.
She wrote “the guru has the reins of my mind,” Roggeman said. “I will never forget that.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-954-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
