A Hanover County resident and self-proclaimed leader of the Ku Klux Klan will spend at least five years behind bars after a Henrico County Judge found him guilty of five misdemeanor assault charges of assault, hit-and-run and property damage a result of his attempt to run down protestors at a Black Lives Matter protest.
“They scattered like cockroaches,” Harry H. Rogers, 36, bragged on a Facebook live video he posted after the attack on June 7. “It’s kind of funny if you ask me.”
Henrico County judge Thomas O. Bondurant Jr. wasn’t laughing this week when he gave Rogers the maximum sentence of 12 months on each of the five counts. That’s a total of 60 months.
What is it with Hanover County folks who go to other localities in the Old Dominion to cause trouble? In Floyd County, Roger Altizer Jr,, a Hanover County man reportedly working in the area on a construction job, waved a confederate flag in an apparent intent to disrupt a peaceful rally on June 13 in front of our courthouse. The charges say he uttered racial slurs and yanked off his shirt off while challenging others to fight. Floyd County deputies arrested him, and he faces misdemeanor assault charges. He also has a jury trial pending on a felony firearms charge back in Hanover.
Harry Rogers also has three felony charges pending for attempted malicious wounding from ramming his car into rally participants on June 7 just outside Richmond.
“Let’s go have some fun,” Rogers said in a post on Facebook before heading to the rally in Henrico County. He urged others to join him.
“He was proud of what he was doing,”Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor told the court this week. “His intent was to go down there and instill fear.”
When police searched Rogers’ home and vehicle, they found several guns, including an assault-style rifle. He had a pistol with him during the assault, along with extended magazine clips and ammunition.
The police also found KKK items in Rogers’ home that he shares with his girlfriend and their son. The items included patches, literature and a green grand dragon robe. They also found a book, “The Practice of Klannishness,” which Henrico gang unit Sgt. Douglas Wood called a “KKK Bible” that preaches claims of white superiority.
Rogers’ felonies will be examined by a Henrico County grand jury. If indicted, he will go to trial in Circuit Court.
In Floyd County, Roger Andrew Altizer Jr. faces a judge Sept. 24 on charges of assault & battery and disorderly conduct. In Hanover County Circuit Court, his felony case of shooting from a vehicle, which apparently stemmed from a road rage incident, is scheduled to go before a jury on October 9.
(This article includes information from The Richmond Times-Disptach. Our thanks for their reporting.)