Man being held for bank robbery
Published 2:51 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
SEATTLE — The man who allegedly robbed the Fall City branch of
the Sno-Falls Credit Union last November is being held without bail at
the Federal Detention Center in Sea-Tac.
United States Magistrate Judge Monica Benton detained Robert
Anthony Johnson on April 12 for the armed bank robbery.
This latest development has been able to calm the fears of many
credit union members, said Linda Larion, president of the Sno-Falls
Credit Union.
“It’s nice to know for our community that this person has been
caught for security reasons,” she said.
“We’re very thankful that the person is in
custody and not at large.”
“And we don’t have to worry if this person will come into our
business again,” Larion added.
According to court documents, on Nov. 22, Johnson waved what
looked like a stainless steel automatic handgun at one of the bank tellers and
demanded that she put the money into a white plastic bag. The worker
complied, and Johnson fled on foot to his father’s house in the 33340 block
of Redmond-Fall City Road in Fall City with about $3,000 in cash.
Witnesses described Johnson as a 6-foot man in his mid 20s, about
160 pounds, wearing a dark DARE sweatshirt and an open-faced
ski mask.
Johnson allegedly stashed the ski mask in his dresser drawer at
his father’s house. Then he burned the sweatshirt in the backyard and
threw the gun in a dumpster near the credit union, court documents stated.
Several hours after the robbery, Johnson met with a Navy recruiter
for a pre-scheduled appointment and then he drove to Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico, for a trip that he had been planning for several months, court
records stated.
About a week after the incident, the teller told FBI agents that
she might have recognized the suspect, since she could see part of the
robber’s face through the ski mask, but couldn’t remember his name. The teller
later recalled that the person was Johnson, a member of the credit union.
The FBI located Johnson on April 3 and brought him into their
Seattle office to take a polygraph examination. However, officials would
not comment on how and where they found the suspect. Johnson
confessed to the crime during the interview, and said that he used a fake rubber
gun during the robbery that he bought from a party store in Issaquah.
The U.S. Attorney’s office filed the complaint papers against Johnson
in Federal Court on April 6. Generally, prosecutors have 30 days to
present their findings to a grand jury, who will then recommend whether to indict
or release the suspect.
If the case goes through and Johnson is found guilty of the
crime, he could face a maximum 25-year prison term.
