Charlie Rogers, a former University of
Nebraska basketball star, was sentenced Thursday for forging her own
anti-gay attack.
Rogers, who was convicted of lying to
police, was sentenced to a week in jail and two years' probation, the
AP reported.
Fire fighters responded to a Lincoln
house fire on an early Sunday morning last July after Rogers called
for help from a neighbor's house. She told police that three masked
men forced themselves into her home, attacked her, carved homophobic
slurs into her body and set her house on fire.
Neighbor Linda Rappi told CNN that
Rogers arrived at her home “naked, her hands were tied with zip
ties. All I could see was a cut across her forehead and blood
running down.”
Rogers reported the attack as Lincoln
was debating a proposed ordinance that would have banned
discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Prosecutors theorized that Rogers, who
is gay, faked the attack to gain support for the proposed measure.
Judge Gale Pokorny said Rogers' plan
“exploded in her face.”
“Ms. Rogers has single-handedly
managed to do a disservice to her cause of enormous proportion,”
Pokorny said. “For a long, long time to come, when a gay makes a
legitimate complaint about unequal treatment or discrimination, there
will be a knee-jerk reaction among many.”
Pokorny read a Facebook posting Rogers
wrote four days before she called for help.
“So maybe I am too idealistic, but I
believe way deep inside me that we can make things better for
everyone. I will be a catalyst. I will do what it takes. I will.
Watch me,” wrote Rogers.
Investigators said Rogers admitted to
purchasing a box cutter and zip ties 5 days before the alleged
incident. They also presented evidence she deleted numerous text
messages from the date in question.
Rogers pleaded not guilty to making a
false police report and continues to maintain that the attack did
happen.