Revere Man Sentenced for Refusal to Testify
| U.S. Attorney’s Office December 18, 2012 |
BOSTON—A Revere man was sentenced today for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury.
Eric Rogers, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William G. Young to 33 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Judge Young ordered that Rogers not begin the federal prison sentence until after he completes the state prison sentence that he has been serving since 2007 on a drug conviction. In addition, Judge Young ordered that Rogers not receive any credit against the 33-month sentence that was imposed today for the 18 months of incarceration that he served in civil contempt. In September 2012, Rogers pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of court.
During June 2010, Rogers was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury that was conducting a racketeering investigation. Rogers was given a court order providing him with statutory use immunity, but he nonetheless refused to testify. A federal judge ordered Rogers to provide testimony under the immunity order, but Rogers continued to refuse and did not provide any lawful excuse. In July 2010, Rogers was held in civil contempt and ordered incarcerated until such time as he would obey the court’s order to testify. U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns issued an order holding that Rogers’s federal civil contempt incarceration would interrupt the running of a pre-existing state criminal sentence that Rogers had been serving. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed that order. Nonetheless, Rogers continued his refusal to obey the court order to testify, and when the maximum 18-month period of civil contempt was about to expire, a federal grand jury indicted Rogers for criminal contempt, the charge to which Rogers was sentenced today.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael L. Tabak of Ortiz’s Organized Crime Strike Force Unit.