Judge allows release of Charleston church shooting suspect's friend

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A judge has allowed a friend of the man accused of massacring nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church to be released from jail.

Magistrate Judge Shiva Hodges ruled Wednesday that 21-year-old Joey Meek could be released on $25,000 secured bond. A few hours later, local television stations showed Meek leaving jail, covering his face and not talking to reporters.

Last month, Hodges lowered Meek's bond from $100,000. Authorities say Meek lied and failed to report all he knew about Dylann Roof's plans to shoot parishioners at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in June.

Meek had been in solitary confinement since his Sept. 17 arrest. He pleaded guilty in March to possessing a stolen vehicle and is currently on probation in the state system.

Meek has said Roof stayed with him before the shootings. Meek previously told CBS News that Roof had complained that "black people was taking over the country."

Meek said that Roof told him he wanted to "start a civil war."

"It was a plan," Meek told CBS News about the attack. "He said that he was planning it for six months."

In the indictment, prosecutors allege that Meek knowingly lied to an FBI agent when he said "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."

The indictment does not specify how the government knows Meek was lying.

Meek, of Lexington, S.C., also said Roof told him that he used birthday money from his parents to buy a .45-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun. Meek said he took the gun away from Roof the night of his drunken rant but gave it back when he had sobered up.

Roof faces nine state murder charges as well as numerous federal charges.