HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- A self-proclaimed leader of the Ku Klux Klan has pleaded guilty to charges that he drove his truck through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters.
Harry Rogers, 37, of Hanover County, pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of assault, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He also pleaded guilty to one count each of destruction of property and hit and run.
Rogers is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail.
Rogers was originally sentenced to six years in jail in August. But he appealed that conviction.
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Rogers drove through the crowd last summer in Henrico County. No one was seriously injured. He struck at least two people, driving over a man’s toe and hitting one woman twice who stepped in front of the truck.
Before he was arrested, Rogers boasted about the incident on social media
“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 (expletive) cockroaches. ... It’s kind of funny if you ask me."
Rogers’ attorney, George Townsend, said Rogers is a member of the KKK.
“He was born into it,” Townsend told the judge. “That was never hidden.
Townsend said he plans to present mitigating evidence at Tuesday’s sentencing. But he offered a brief defense of his client in court on Thursday.
“The only people that made contact with the truck were those who put themselves in front of the truck,” he said.
Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor previously cited Rogers' well-known beliefs as the "Grand Dragon" of the KKK and said he boasted that he was a top official of the KKK in Virginia to police at the scene.
