A former Essex County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant has been sentenced to 8 years in state prison for committing a bank robbery in Boonton NJ last year.
According to officials, the 71-year-old defendant entered the Santander Bank on April 30, 2014 and threatened to shoot a female bank teller. He then fled the scene with $2,750 in cash stolen from the bank.
The day before the robbery, employees at the Valley National Bank located in Landing NJ observed a suspicious man in their lobby. The employees wrote down the man’s license plate number, which allegedly matched the license plate number for the defendant’s vehicle.
After the robbery of the Santander Bank in Boonton, law enforcement released surveillance camera images of the defendant. Employees at the Landing bank then reached out to police with information about the defendant’s motor vehicle.
At the time of the Santander bank robbery, the defendant was living at the Red Roof Inn, a motel located along Route 46 in Parsippany, New Jersey. That’s where police located him and placed him under arrest.
The defendant eventually pleaded guilty in December 2014 to second degree robbery charges. Now he has been sentenced to serve 8 years in New Jersey State Prison. At the sentencing hearing in Morris County Superior Court, located in Morristown NJ, the superior court judge handed down the sentence.
Additionally, the defendant will be required to serve a minimum of 85 percent of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.
According to prosecutors, the defendant will receive credit for 1 year that he has already served in Morris County Jail while awaiting trial and sentencing.
The sentence was particularly harsh because the defendant is a repeat offender. When issuing the sentence, the judge noted that the defendant had previously served time in federal prison for another bank robbery in Livingston, NJ. The defendant served approximately 4 years for that robbery.
Additionally, the defendant was charged with robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon in Clifton NJ while he was still working for the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He retired from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office in 2002.
To learn more about this case, check out the NJ.com article entitled “Retired Essex Cop Sentenced to 8 Years for Bank Robbery, Report Says.”
