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Sonia Rogers ordered the closure of a retail establishment, threatened to fine the owners, and requested bribes of cash and free store merchandise in exchange for reopening the store and not levying the threatened fines, Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.
Last September, Rogers entered a store on Broad Street in uniform and, after conducting an inspection, she ordered the business to be closed. Rogers told store management that the store’s municipal business license had expired, and if she were to allow the store to re-open to the public, she should be compensated with a cash bribe for doing them a favor, Platkin said.
Rogers asked for a bribe of $800, telling a store employee to take care of her since, under the city’s code enforcement regulations, the store should remain closed until a fire inspection was completed and the business license was reinstated, Platkin said.
In exchange for re-opening the store and not imposing any fines, Rogers initially solicited the bribe in cash, but she settled for taking store merchandise without paying, Platkin said. Rogers said she would help facilitate a fire inspection of the business in exchange for the store compensating her, Platkin said. Rogers kept returning to the store on multiple occasions through November 2024, attempting to be further compensated, including unsuccessful attempts to take a television, Platkin said.
Rogers became a prominent spokeswoman against gun violence after her three sons, Anthony, Antoine and Tyquan were murdered between 2011 and 2015, none reaching the age of 21. She publicly backed a plan by the city to treat violence as a "public health issue."
Rogers was charged with official misconduct, bribery, theft by extortion, and soliciting or accepting any benefit to influence the performance of an official duty.
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