A Wisconsin man jailed after he helped a Tennessee teenager escape an abusive situation in her home could be taking a plea deal.
Bryan Rogers, who is charged with sexual exploitation of a child to produce a visual depiction, was set to have a pretrial motion hearing Friday.
The court held a pretrial motion hearing over the phone. Rogers did not participate personally but was represented by his attorney, Marcus Berghahn. The government was also represented.
"Counsel jointly reported that they are on the verge of resolving this case with a plea agreement, so no further briefing or court action is necessary on the pending motion to dismiss," court documents said.
According to the records, the court will keep the existing schedule on the books as a placeholder but will not schedule an arraignment on the superseding indictment.
In court documents released last week, Rogers claims he asked her to get video of her adoptive father raping her for evidence, not for personal gain.
Rogers met the Madisonville girl on an online gaming platform called Roblox in late September 2018, then began communicating by Facebook. Prosecutors allege that by Oct. 1, their long-distance relationship had turned romantic, and that's when the 14-year-old told Rogers that she was being sexually abused by her father.
They exchanged messages for months about how to get her away from him, and court documents show the teen, listed as KV in the documents, appeared desperate and threatened to kill herself if Rogers couldn't help her. Rogers was insistent that if she didn't have proof, he could get in trouble for helping her.
Rogers remains behind bars in the Dane County, Wisconsin, jail. He also faces a federal charge of lying to the FBI.
Pruitt, the adoptive father, was charged with rape and is being held in the Monroe County jail.