A federal grand jury indicted a Wisconsin man on Wednesday, in connection with the January disappearance of a Tennessee teen, who said her adoptive father had been raping her.
According to court documents, 31-year-old Bryan Rogers pleaded not guilty on Thursday to making false statements and sexually exploiting a child, while appearing in a Wisconsin federal court a day after his indictment.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Rogers allegedly convinced a 14-year-old girl, who reached out to him for help, to record her adoptive father, 41-year-old Randall Lee Pruitt, raping her in her Madisonville, Tennessee, home.
Rogers and the girl met on an online gaming platform, Roblox, and later began sending messages to each other via Facebook and through an encrypted messaging app. The girl reportedly told Rogers about ongoing issues at home, including her father sexually assaulting her while her mother turned a blind eye and didn’t help her.
Rogers allegedly told the girl he couldn’t risk picking her up unless she had proof of Pruitt raping her. Reluctantly, the girl turned on her cellphone and recorded her father coming into her bedroom and raping her, according to court documents.
After the girl sent Rogers the video, he drove over 700 miles from Madison, Wisconsin, to Tennessee and picked her up, court documents state. He then drove her back to his mother’s Madison home, where he lived in the basement.
Bryan Rogers Indictment by on Scribd
Rogers’ attorneys, Jonas Bednarek and Marcus Berghahn, claimed their client never had sex with the girl and was only trying to help her get out of a dangerous home situation.
However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Pfluger argued in court earlier this month that a sexual assault examination on the teen girl, performed after authorities rescued her from Rogers’ home, showed sexual activity had occurred within the past three to five days. The dates were within the time ranges she was staying with Rogers.
Bednarek adamantly disputed the allegation.
Pfluger added that Rogers showed his abilities to hide from police after he reportedly admitted he avoided tolls and gas stations with cameras while traveling back to Wisconsin with the teen. At that point, the girl had already sent Rogers the the sexual assault video, but he never turned it over to authorities, Pfluger argued. Instead, he allegedly avoided any contact with police.Rogers also admitted he smashed the girl’s cellphone so that they couldn’t be traced, Pfluger said.
Bednarek argued that the video his client asked the girl to record was for evidence purposes only, and reminded the court that Rogers helped the teen mail off a 6-page evidence letter and an SD card to the FBI. Rogers drove the teen to Missouri to mail the package off to the the FBI’s St. Louis field office, then drove back to Wisconsin with her.
Rogers didn’t know at the time that Pruitt had been arrested and charged with rape. Oppeneer ultimately decided there was enough information to hold Rogers without bond until trial.The judge said that the amount of work put into hiding the girl, evading police and initially lying to them was in part, why he chose to deny bond.
Meanwhile, Pruitt, remains behind bars on a $2 million bond. His next schedule court date is in May.
Read below for additional details on the case
Girl who fled home after adoptive dad raped her says her mother ignored her cries for help: Lawyer
[Feature Photo: Bryan Rogers/Police Handout]
