Pensacola, Florida, Man Indicted for Arson at American Family Planning Clinic

WASHINGTON– Bobby Joe Rogers, 41, of Pensacola, Fla., has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the fire that destroyed the American Family Planning Clinic in Pensacola on Jan. 1, 2012, the Justice Department announced today. The two-count indictment charges Rogers with arson and damaging a reproductive health facility.

Rogers remains in federal custody following his arrest on Jan. 5, 2012. If convicted at trial, the defendant faces a sentence of five to twenty years in prison for the arson count and up to one year in prison for damaging a reproductive health clinic.

An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The indictment is a result of the investigative work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Pensacola Police Department, the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office and the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edwin Knight and Chiraag Bains, Trial Attorney with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.