(CNN) — Joey Meek knew more about accused Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter Dylann Roof’s plans than he let on and lied to authorities about it, prosecutors said in an indictment unsealed Friday.
A federal judge ordered Meek, 21, held in lieu of $100,000 bond on charges of misprision of a felony — concealing and failing to report it — and making false statements.
Meek pleaded not guilty, according to the court.
Roof, also 21, faces the death penalty in the June 17 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in which nine people died.
Police captured Roof in North Carolina the day after the attack and brought him back to South Carolina. He admitted to the killings, police said.
Meek told CNN that he called the FBI the morning after the shooting, describing Roof and giving investigators the license plate number from his car.
Meek told reporters that Roof had drunkenly vowed to “do something crazy” but that he did not take him seriously, even though he said he hid his friend’s gun the night of that boast. He said he put it back the next day.
“I didn’t take him serious,” Meek said.
But according to the indictment, Meek may have known more than he let on.
Prosecutors allege Meek told an FBI agent questioning him after the shootings that “he did not know specifics of Dylann Roof’s plan to shoot individuals on a Wednesday, during Bible Study, at an AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.”
In reality, prosecutors say, “Meek’s statements and representations denying such specifics were false, fictitious and fraudulent when made.”
The indictment also charges Meek with failing to notify authorities of the shooting “as soon as possible.”
Friend said shooting could have been stopped
Meek told CNN shortly after the shooting that he had been friends with Roof in middle school. They’d lost touch a few years ago but reconnected in recent months, Meek said, adding that there were things about Roof’s recent behavior that scared him.
Roof said he wanted to have “a race war,” according to Meek, and once asked his friend to videotape him burning an American flag.
“I’m sorry this all happened to everybody,” Meek said in June. “And it could have been prevented if people would have taken him serious. But Dylann wasn’t a serious person, and no one took him serious.”
