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Friday, March 29, 2024

On Tuesday, John-Phillip Rogers set up a GoFundMe page.

As of press time, he’s raised more than $1,300 from nine donors.

The donations came three days after he was released from the Alachua County Jail on Sunday morning on a $75,000 bond.

Police arrested him for the attempted sexual battery of a local woman, but several of his friends and family refuse to believe the accusation and have donated to the 24-year-old’s page.

"All donations are used to pay BIG Financial bills and are needed ASAP," Rogers wrote on the page. He could not be reached for comment as of press time.

Aimee Guralnick, 22, donated $15 to support Rogers. Guralnick met Rogers in 2013 when she started working with him at the Hunter’s Crossing Publix. Customers made an effort to visit Rogers’ cash register to enjoy his smile and laughter, she wrote in an email.

Guralnick’s heart dropped when she first heard about Rogers’ arrest because her heart told her he was innocent.

"I just know that if JP gets charged for this crime, no justice will be served, and an innocent man will be in jail," she said.

Mackenzie Selle, 19, watched police take Rogers in for questioning. The two have been in an on-and-off relationship for about three years, she said, and she was in his room Sunday when police arrived.

"I was just in shock initially, and then after that, I couldn’t stop crying because he doesn’t deserve it," Selle said. She added that a Publix customer donated $500 to Rogers’ online fundraiser.

She said Rogers’ father died when he was 12, and his mother died of cancer in April 2014. He remained positive, then and now, and currently lives with his sister and her young child, she said. It’s there where, after his release from jail, she said he reflected on a crime that friends say he couldn’t commit.

"He said to me, ‘I can’t imagine somebody doing that to my sister,’" Selle said.

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Contact Giuseppe Sabella at gsabella@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Gsabella

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