- Edison, NJ cop gets 9 years for Armed Bank Robbery -
- OFR -
Edison cop sentenced for heist
By LONNIE MACK Gannett New Jersey
By LONNIE MACK
Gannett New Jersey
The Edison police officer who robbed an Oak Tree Road bank in
1999 to pay his gambling debts was sentenced Monday to more
than nine years in prison by a U.S. District Court judge in
Newark.
Robert Spinello, the 11-year police veteran convicted April 17 of
bank robbery, armed robbery and the illegal use of a firearm,
also was directed by Judge Joseph Greenaway Jr. to perform
100 hours of community service during each of his five years of
government supervision after release from the federal prison
system.
Spinello, 32, the father of twins younger than 2 years old,
apologized to the bank, the teller, his family and "to the Edison
Police Department I disgraced, I am sorry," he said. "In the 60
seconds it took me to rob the bank,' Spinello, who was dressed
in prison garb, said, "I threw away my life."
His wife, Angela, wept silently during the proceedings and
declined comment after he was sentenced to nine years and
three months in prison.
Since the trial, Spinello has admitted to his attorney, Lawrence
Lustberg of Newark, and probation officials that he robbed the
bank after he was threatened the day before by a "bookie" to
whom he owed money.
According to U.S. Attorney Robert J. Cleary, Spinello admitted
he had lost $10,000 betting on football games the weekend
before the robbery and had paid off $4,000 of that debt.
But, Lustberg said, that was not good enough for the "bookie."
Lustberg, who sought a more lenient sentence, described the
robbery as "inexplicable, an irrational spontaneous act -- a
spur-of-the-moment decision" unlikely to occur again.
Spinello was sentenced to a mandatory five-year term for the
firearms conviction and 51 months each on the bank robbery
and armed robbery charges, to run concurrent with each other
but consecutive to the weapons-conviction sentence.
Greenaway rejected arguments by Cleary that Spinello should
have been sentenced to additional time, at least a year,
because he was responsible for obstructing justice.
Cleary argued that he permitted his wife and brother, Michael, to
present false testimony.
from the Courier News
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