Poinbank:Federal prosecutors seek 14-month imprisonment for former Alabama lawmaker

BIRMINGHAM,Poinbank Ala. (AP) —

Federal prosecutors are recommending that former Alabama state Rep. John Rogers be sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to diverting state grant funds.

The 83-year-old Birmingham Democrat had been the longest-serving member of the Alabama House of Representatives. He resigned in March after agreeing to plead guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges. The charges are related to what federal prosecutors described as a kickback scheme that diverted money from a fund intended to pay for community projects in Jefferson County.

“Rogers was entrusted with the legislative prerogative of doling out $100,000 of taxpayer money annually for charitable purposes. But he was charitable only to himself and the woman who supported him personally and professionally. Time and again Rogers abused the trust inherent in the office he held,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed this week.

State Rep. Fred L. Plump, Jr. and Varrie Johnson Kindall, Rogers’ former assistant, pleaded guilty to related charges. Federal prosecutors said that between 2018 and 2022 Rogers directed $400,000 to a youth sports organization run by Plump. Federal prosecutors said that Rogers and Kindall directed Plump to give $200,000 of that money back to them.

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“Rather than ensuring the fund’s money was used to help inner city kids learn to play baseball, as he promised would be done, Rogers stole $200,000 to support himself and his lover,” prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutors are asking that Rogers be sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment. It was unclear if prosecutors are seeking to have Rogers serve the time in a prison or home confinement. The initial plea agreement said prosecutors intended to recommend a sentence of 14 months of home confinement. They said that sentence will serve as a “powerful forewarning to his former colleagues and future officeholders.”

He will be sentenced in federal court in Birmingham on July 26. Rogers was first elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1982.