Alabama Rep. John Rogers charged with obstruction of justice in fraud case
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Alabama Representative John Rogers (D) of the 52nd district has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of obstruction of justice in the case involving a scheme to defraud the Jefferson County Community Service Fund.
This indictment is part of the same investigation that led to former state Representative Fred L. Plump, Jr. resigning from the house.
The 25-count indictment filed this week in United States District Court accuses Rogers of trying to bribe someone identified as Individual #1 to keep them from talking to authorities.
In June 2023, former Representative Fred L. Plump, Jr., pleaded guilty to conspiring with his former assistant Varrie Johnson Kindall. Plump subsequently resigned from the Alabama House of Representatives.
Plump and Kindall were previously indicted on charges of misusing county money provided by Rogers that was supposed to go to the little league baseball outfit that Plump ran.
Kindall has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, 11 counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, one count of money laundering, and four tax related charges.
Between fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2022, Rogers was allocated approximately $500,000 by the Community Service Fund. The indictment states Rogers directed approximately $400,000 of those discretionary funds to Piper Davis. In turn, Plump gave approximately $200,000 to Kindall.
The indictment further alleges that, after learning about the federal investigation into the fraud scheme, Rogers and Kindall attempted to obstruct justice by offering Individual #1 additional grant money as a bribe and otherwise trying to corruptly persuade Individual #1 to give false information to federal agents.
The indictment also adds four counts alleging that Kindall did not file a tax return for 2019 despite receiving substantial income and aided the filing of false tax returns for 2020-2022.
According to court documents, Rogers is scheduled to be arraigned on October 12 at 9:30 a.m. at the Hugo L. Black United States Courthouse.
WBRC has reached out to Representative Rogers for comment, but we have not heard back as of the publication of this article.
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