What we know about the suspects in California Democratic HQ bombing plot in Sacramento
One of the Northern California men accused of plotting to blow up the Democratic Party Headquarters in Sacramento was a prominent Wine Country mechanic specializing in Jaguar and Land Rover repairs.
The other, according to court papers, was a repeat military deserter who lived in Sacramento, abused steroids and was rising the ranks of a far-right anti-government militia group.
Both were upset with the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election. And now both have been indicted by a San Francisco grand jury for allegedly amassing an arsenal of firearms and explosives and conspiring to target buildings in and around Northern California.
Here is what we know about the two men:
One of them, Ian Benjamin Rogers, has been in custody since Jan. 15 facing a host of weapons and explosives charges. Prosecutors said an early version of his plot was to target the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Sacramento. “I want to blow up a democrat building bad,” Rogers wrote in a text, according to the affidavit released at the time. “The democrats need to pay.”
The other man, Jarrod Copeland, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly conspiring with Rogers — and a militia group — to blow up the Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento. Federal prosecutors laid out an updated version of the alleged plot in court papers released this week.
Jarrod Copeland, 37, arrested in Sacramento
The indictment said Copeland, 37, lived in Vallejo.
Public records, court papers and interviews with neighbors confirm that he also lived at an Arden-area apartment complex in Sacramento and was arrested Wednesday morning.
Niki DeGeorge, 27, said she heard FBI agents shouting early Wednesday as they served a search warrant at Copeland’s first floor apartment. She peeked out a window from her second floor unit and saw about a dozen FBI agents with tactical vests demanding her neighbor open his door.
“It was jarring, I’ve never been around someone being served with a search warrant before,” DeGeorge told The Sacramento Bee Friday afternoon. “It was quite shocking to see that.”
She said the FBI agents arrived about 6 a.m. Wednesday and left about two hours later. She didn’t see them take anything out of Copeland’s home, but other neighbors told her they did.
DeGeorge said Copeland moved into the apartment a few months ago, and she’s not aware of him causing any disturbances at the apartment complex.
“He was always friendly, he would say ‘hello,’ but I never had any conversations with him,’ ” DeGeorge said.
When FBI agents arrested Copeland, they found zip-tie handcuffs that Copeland had allegedly written were going to be used in their plot against the Democratic Headquarters building.
“The fact that he still had them six months later indicates that he still believed a situation would arise where he would need to take prisoners,” prosecutors wrote.
They also found anabolic steroids, which are known to increase irritability and aggression.
Copeland enlisted in the U.S. military in 2013 but was arrested twice in the following years for deserting, according to court records. He left the military in 2016 under an “other than honorable” discharge in lieu of court-martial.
He later joined the “3 Percenters,” a far-right anti-government militia group, court records show. He allegedly boasted about climbing the ranks and being offered an officer position for either “communication or security.”
He told Rogers: “my communication consists of fists and bullets.”
Prosecutors said that as the two allegedly developed their plot against buildings in Sacramento, Copeland told Rogers that he had “contacted an anti-government militia group to attempt to gather support for their ‘movement,’ ” according to court papers.
The day after Copeland learned of Rogers’ arrest, he contacted the group again and was instructed to delete his written conversations with Rogers. When prosecutors raided his home on Jan. 17, and seized his guns, his conversations with Rogers were missing, prosecutors said.
A grand jury indicted him on July 7 for “conspiring to maliciously destroy a building by arson.”
Copeland is set for a detention hearing on Tuesday.
“Both he and Rogers were animated by the kind (of) anger that will not be abated or deterred by a court order,” federal authorities wrote. “And all of the political and social conditions that motivated them to plan what they themselves described as a terrorist attack remain.”
Ian Benjamin Rogers, 44, arrested in January
Ian Benjamin Rogers, 44, is the owner of British Auto Repair of the Napa Valley, a mechanic shop that specializes in repairing Jaguars and Land Rovers.
The business’s Yelp page says Rogers was a 1995 graduate of Wyoming Technical Institute and earned a degree in Automotive Technology. He started the Napa shop in 2007, according to the Better Business Bureau.
Rogers pleaded not guilty in January to some two-dozen state and federal weapons charges related to the cache of pipe bombs, rifles and ammunition investigators seized earlier that month. Rogers told prosecutors the explosives were for entertainment purposes only.
Investigators also identified a sticker on Rogers’ truck that signified support of the “3 Percenters,” the same right-wing anti-government extremist group Copeland said he belonged to, according to court papers.
In the January Napa Superior Court hearing, Rogers’ defense attorney Jess Raphael, said the threats were “generalized political hyperbole with no intent to follow through,” the Napa Valley Register newspaper reported.
“Mr. Rogers is a mouthy drunk,” the newspaper quoted Raphael saying. “When he drinks, and he does drink, he says stupid things — and he writes really stupid things.”
Records released this week described in specific terms how the duo talked about their plan. They debated the pros and cons of firing guns at buildings, including the Governor’s Mansion. They considered their reputations as being labeled domestic terrorists. And they discussed how to avoid detection from the California Highway Patrol, which has an office across the street from the Democratic Party Headquarters in Sacramento.
The Napa Valley Register also reported on lawyers’ disagreeing over the significance of a Nazi flag reportedly found during the raid. Prosecutors have said it furthers their case that Rogers held pro-fascist beliefs. Raphael described it as a keepsake Rogers’ grandfather brought back after fighting in World War II.
A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted the two men — Ian Benjamin Rogers of Napa and Jarrod Copeland of Vallejo — on charges of conspiracy to destroy a building, possession of destructive devices and machine guns and obstruction of justice.
The Justice Department says Rogers remains in custody and has a hearing set for July 30.
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 1:35 PM with the headline "What we know about the suspects in California Democratic HQ bombing plot in Sacramento."
