After surviving numerous political challenges and investigations across four decades in the Alabama legislature, longtime state Rep. John Rogers is headed to federal prison.

On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced the 83-year-old Democrat from Birmingham to 13 months in prison for his role in a kickback scheme involving public money intended for nonprofits. He’s the second lawmaker taken down by federal prosecutors for the scheme.

When Rogers, 83, completes his time in prison, he’ll also have three years of supervised release and must pay back $197,950 to the Jefferson County Community Service Fund. He appeared before the U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler today at the Hugo L. Black U.S. Courthouse in Birmingham.

“I’m sorry about the whole escapade and I take full responsibility,” Rogers told Judge Coogler. “It hurts me to no end. I can tell you, it’s hard on me. It’s in God’s hands.”

Rogers represented Birmingham and parts of the metro area in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1982 until March of this year. He was the longest serving member of the state House when he resigned and pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.

After months of denying any wrongdoing, Rogers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice in March.

Federal prosecutors said that between 2019 and April 2023, Rogers directed about $400,000 of public funds from the community service fund to the Piper Davis Youth Baseball League which was operated by state Rep. Fred Plump.

Plump then sent back about half of that money to Rogers’ assistant and companion Varrie Johnson Kindall, who then deposited the money for herself and Rogers to use, according to federal court records.

On Friday, Judge Coogler sentenced Plump and Johnson Kindall to prison for their roles in the scheme. Plump was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, while Johnson received three years for her role in the scheme and another unrelated case of theft. Plump resigned from the legislature and pleaded guilty in May of 2023.

In addition to the money for the baseball league, prosecutors accused Rogers and Johnson Kindall of diverting more public funds back to themselves through another local nonprofit. Court documents outline the second kickback scheme in 2019, in which Rogers diverted $10,000 to the nonprofit, and its founder paid back $1,800 to Rogers and Johnson Kindall.

Prosecutors didn’t name the organization in court records, though Rogers identified the nonprofit’s founder as George Stewart, of the American Gospel Quartet Convention, a Birmingham-based music nonprofit.

In October, Rogers spent a week in the Cullman County Jail for violating his bond by attempting to contact the founder.

Rogers and Kindall also attempted to offer $10,000 from the fund to an unnamed dance studio, but the owner refused to participate in the kickback scheme, prosecutors said in court records.

Prosecutors originally recommended that Rogers be sentenced to 14 months of home confinement. His plea agreement from March states that part of the scheme was that Johnson Kindall would “accept full responsibility for the crimes” and “falsely state that defendant Rogers did not participate in the scheme” in exchange for Rogers taking care of her “personal matters” if she went to prison.

But in June, his attorney John Robbins filed an objection, stating that Rogers did not remember making that promise to Johnson Kindall, per court records.

Prosecutors then responded with a recommendation for 14 months of imprisonment, instead, alleging that Rogers breached his plea agreement by admitting to something he now claims he doesn’t have memory of.

Then, Robbins asked to withdraw his objection because Rogers wasn’t aware that he filed it, but still argued that he needed home confinement because of his military service and his “steadily declining” health, citing diabetes, kidney disease and prostate cancer, per court documents.

“He has not attempted to mitigate his role in the conspiracy,” Robbins said in a sentencing memorandum filed in court records on Sunday. “He has not attempted to shift blame to anyone else. He has resigned his office and has accepted the embarrassment and humiliation that comes with his resignation under these circumstances.”

Johnson Kindall received the longest prison sentence of three years because she had already pleaded guilty in a separate case where she collected nearly $88,000 worth of her parents’ retirement payments for years after they died. That plea carried a minimum two-year sentencing.

Rogers’ dramatic political demise has generated strong reaction from residents and political observers. Shelia Smoot, a former Jefferson County commissioner, longtime former TV journalist and a political strategist, likened Rogers to a relic of an older political era.

“John was not quiet about anything. And he wasn’t shy to tell you who he was and how he controlled government in the state of Alabama,” she said. “He’s a personable man, generally a nice guy, but shrewd. He did cut some deals that grew his power. But that was then, and this is now. And the game has changed.”

Smoot said the ignoble end to Rogers’ long political career should deliver a strong warning to the current generation of elected leaders.

“The new leadership needs to be mindful that Alabama politics is real, is not a game, and if you don’t play within the spirit of the rules you might face the same fate as a John Rogers,” she said.

This breaking story will be updated.