Bank robbery charges: the case, from FBI response to sentencing.

The first forty-eight hours.

A bank alarm triggers a choreography older than most statutes: FBI and local robbery units respond jointly, the branch closes as a crime scene, surveillance is pulled across the block (the bank’s cameras, the parking lot’s, the bus that passed), dye-pack and GPS-tracker data routes to dispatch, and tellers give statements while adrenaline is still writing them. Within days: stills released to media, tips triaged, and - in the pattern cases - a serial workup matching notes, phrasing, and clothing across branches. Arrests happen two ways: fast (trackers, dye stains, license plates) or slow (a tip, a print on the note, a cooperator). The defense usually enters at the arrest - and everything before it is the record we inherit and attack.

What the government’s file looks like.

A federal bank robbery file is an identification file: surveillance stills and enhancement reports, teller statements and lineup procedures, cell-site records placing a phone near branches, clothing seized in searches, and - increasingly - facial recognition leads laundered through “investigative tips.” Each layer has defense purchase: photo-array procedures are governed by suggestiveness doctrine; enhancement and comparison testimony has Daubert edges; cell-site precision is chronically overstated; and facial-recognition leads that started the chain are discoverable and litigable. The “slam dunk” bank case is usually three cross-examinable inferences wearing a trench coat.

The plea calculus, honestly.

Federal bank robbery convictions run high, and counsel’s job is clear-eyed triage: where identity is genuinely contested, these cases try - and acquittals happen when the file is inference-stacked. Where identity is solid, the fight moves to charge tier (robbery versus larceny), weapon enhancements (the pocket-hand cases), guideline math, and the sentencing presentation - addiction treatment enrolled before sentencing, mental-health evaluations, restitution posture, and the life story the pre-sentence report will otherwise flatten. The difference between the government’s opening position and a well-fought resolution is routinely measured in years - which is the entire argument for counsel who does this work, immediately, before the first interview happens without one.

THE AUTHOR

Todd A. Spodek

Managing partner. Second-generation federal defense lawyer - the Netflix defense, the Fox and CNN analyst chair, and two decades of federal courtrooms.

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