Rogers pleads guilty
Former NLR photo archivist faces fine, prison time for fraud.
John Rogers, the former photo archivist from North Little Rock, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud Monday in federal court in Chicago, according to the court clerk’s office.
Sentencing was set for Sept. 12 at 10 a. m.
Rogers pleaded guilty before U. S. District Judge Thomas Durkin of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
Rogers declined to comment about his plea.
His attorney, Blake Hendrix of Little Rock, said “it is way too early to tell” what sentence Rogers will receive.
“Our work, between now and sentencing, is to prepare for sentencing,” Hendrix said.
Rogers faces a fine and imprisonment of up to 20 years.
Rogers was formally charged by the U. S. attorney in Illinois in September.
The criminal information against Rogers claims that in 2009 he bought an honorary Heisman Trophy at an auction. The trophy was awarded in 1960 to a longtime master of ceremonies of the Heisman Trophy banquet held annually in New York City.
Rogers then participated in a scheme to fraudulently represent that he had in his possession a genuine Heisman Trophy won by an unnamed player, according to the charges.
Rogers took the ceremonial Heisman Trophy and placed a nameplate of a football player on it, the indictment said. The filing did not name the player, but the Chicago Tribune reported that the player was Oklahoma’s Billy Sims, the 1978 Heisman Trophy winner. The award is given each year to the nation’s “most outstanding col-
lege football player.”
The fraud with the Heisman Trophy was only a part of schemes to obtain more than $ 10 million from investors, financial institutions and customers, according to the charge against Rogers.
That includes several civil lawsuits seeking millions of dollars from Rogers.
First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville has sued Rogers for more than $ 15 million.
“The bank and to our knowledge the other creditors were not involved in the negotiation of the guilty plea [ Monday],” Roger Rowe, an attorney for First Arkansas, said. “That may be obvious because of the limited number of charges that were included in the plea.”
The bank and other creditors will presumably have
their first opportunity to address the plea and the penalty at the sentencing hearing, Rowe said.
“We expect the bank and other creditors will exercise every opportunity to obtain the sentence appropriate for the magnitude of the acts of John Rogers’ criminal fraud and the period of time over which they were committed,” Rowe said.