A Wisconsin man jailed after he said he helped a Tennessee teen escape an abusive situation in her home by having her make a video of alleged abuse by her adoptive father has pleaded guilty to a charge as part of a plea agreement.
According to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin, Bryan Rogers formally entered a guilty plea on the charge of knowingly bringing the underage teen across state lines to have sex with her.
With the agreement, he faces at least 10 years in prison but will not face prosecution on the other counts, including one that charges him with exploiting her by having the girl make the sexual assault video.
The conviction also carries five years of supervised release and a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Rogers and the girl struck up a long-distance, online relationship late last year. She told him that her adoptive father, Randall Pruitt, was having sex with her and had been coercing her into having sex for years.
She asked for help.
Rogers told her she needed to secretly film Pruitt engaging in the assault with her cellphone for evidence purposes. She objected repeatedly about the idea over the course of weeks but ultimately recorded an incident, authorities allege.
Afterward, Rogers secretly drove from Wisconsin in January, retrieved her without her parents' knowledge and hid her in his mother's home in Madison.
They also prepared a package that included the video and delivered it to the FBI in St. Louis.
According to records, Rogers also began having sex with the underage girl.
Pruitt has been charged in Monroe County with three counts of rape of a child and tampering with evidence. The girl's mother, Christine L. Pruitt, also is charged with tampering with evidence.