A member of the Ku Klux Klan in Richmond, Virginia, pleaded guilty Thursday on charges he drove his vehicle through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters, authorities said.
Harry Rogers, a 37-year-old from Hanover County, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault along with one count each of destruction of property and hit-and-run.
Slated to be sentenced Tuesday, he faces five misdemeanors that each carry a penalty of up to a year in jail, or five years maximum.
Rogers was convicted in August 2020 on six misdemeanor charges and sentenced to six years in jail, though he appealed his conviction.
He entered a guilty plea on Thursday, opting not to go to trial, which was slated for next week. The court dropped three felony charges and a fourth misdemeanor count as a part of his plea deal.
On June 7, Rogers drove his truck through a group of protesters near Bryan Park and struck at least two people, running over one man’s toe and striking one woman twice who stepped in front of the truck, causing her to jump on the hood of the vehicle.
According to a video Rogers posted online following the incident, he bragged about his encounter before he was arrested.
“This Chevrolet 2500 went up on the curb and through the protest,” he said on a Facebook live video played in court. “They started scattering like f—— cockroaches. … It’s kind of funny if you ask me.”
His girlfriend’s 14-year-old son was in the passenger seat of the vehicle during the incident.
Rogers was arrested near the A.P. Hill monument, which he told authorities he and 20 others were there to defend from potential vandalism.
Police uncovered a rifle, pistol, and ammunition in his truck following his arrest. They also found Confederate and KKK iconography inside the vehicle.
His attorney George Townsend told a judge Rogers was “born into” the KKK, adding, “That was never hidden.”
Townsend plans to exhibit mitigating evidence at Tuesday’s sentencing, offering a brief comment to the judge defending his client Thursday, he added.
“The only people that made contact with the truck were those who put themselves in front of the truck,” Townsend said.
