John Rogers, one the longest serving lawmakers in the Alabama House, is facing federal prison. According to court records, Rogers has breached his long-standing plea agreement for misusing Jefferson County tax dollars during his last term.
The state senators directed some of the grant money to Plump’s youth baseball league called Piper Davis over several years. Plump would then “kick back” nearly half of the grant proceeds to Rogers and Kindall. Kindall would go on to cash the money in the form of checks.
For his involvement, Rogers agreed to a plea agreement to serve a 14-month sentence with house arrest.
However, according to court records, Rogers allegedly breached his plea agreement and now prosecutors are pushing for him to finish out his sentenced time in a federal prison.
Rogers’ plea agreement included home confinement and a guilty plea for his role in the kickback scheme. According to court records, Rogers convinced Kindall to “accept full responsibility for the kickback scheme and tell investigators that he was not involved.” In exchange, he promised to pay her mortgage and care for her children while she was imprisoned.
Despite signing the plea agreement, Rogers’ defense attorney later filed an objection and stated, “Defendant does [sic] have any memory of making this promise. However, the defendant does acknowledge that said information is contained in the factual basis of his plea agreement and that he signed the factual basis and admitted in open court that the factual basis was substantially correct.”
Prosecutors pointed out that this objective filing breaches the plea agreement, and that Rogers should instead serve his 14-month sentence in prison instead of at home.
Source: Black Enterprise
