Inmate Accused of Fabricating Evidence of Murder Plot

FRESNO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that a federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment charging ROY ALONZO DICKINSON, 48, currently incarcerated in CI Taft Correctional Institution, with submitting false documents to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Kathleen A. Servatius, who is prosecuting the case, the indictment alleges that Dickinson created false documents to support his claim that another inmate at the correctional institution was plotting to murder two government attorneys, including an attorney employed the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as an Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting criminal cases. The defendant then submitted these documents to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

United States Attorney Wagner stated, “Allegations that someone is planning to murder government attorneys are necessarily taken extremely seriously. Creating false documents and providing those false documents to an investigative agency to support such a claim is a serious crime that we cannot and will not ignore.”

The maximum statutory penalty for each violation of submitting false documents to the FBI is five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, a $100 penalty assessment, to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.

The charges are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.