TWO ARRESTED IN NINE BANK ROBBERIES

A Madison Couple Whom Authorities Say Are Serious Drug Users Were
Charged Tuesday in Connection With Nine Armed Bank Robberies Between
July and November, Part of a Rash of 35 Bank Robberies in Dane County
This Year.

A man, 29, is being held in Dane County jail on $46,000 bail, and a
woman, 26, is being held on $20,000 bail in connection with the
robberies that netted a total of $37,800 from banks in Madison,
Cottage Grove, Monona, Middleton and Stoughton.

"These two were putting tellers on the ground at gunpoint," said
Assistant District Attorney Mike Verveer. "We are really lucky that
their inhibitions, which were disappearing, remained until they were caught."

The man and woman began ordering tellers to the ground during
robberies in October and continued the practice through robberies in
November, Verveer said. Both are heavy heroin users, he added.

The two are charged with armed robbery or conspiracy to commit armed
robbery in four robberies at Bank Mutual, 5320 Monona Drive, Monona,
on Aug. 29, Oct. 11, Oct. 21 and Nov. 14. They also are charged with
armed robbery or conspiracy to commit armed robbery at Bank Mutual,
6209 Century Ave., Middleton, on Nov. 8, as well as Bank of Sun
Prairie in Cottage Grove, Aug. 15, and Anchor Bank in Stoughton,
Sept. 8. In some instances, just one of the two went into the bank;
in others, both went in according to the complaint.

The man, who last month was charged with armed robbery of the Great
Wisconsin Credit Union, 5420 Cottage Grove Road, on Nov. 21, also is
charged with robbery with use of force at the same credit union on
July 13. The woman also has been charged with conspiracy to commit
robbery in the Nov. 21 incident.

According to a criminal complaint, a resident near the Great
Wisconsin Credit Union saw someone run through a wooded area and get
into a car registered to the man after the Nov. 21 robbery.

The man was arrested Nov. 22 when his car, which has distinctive rust
spots, was spotted by police, Verveer said. He was charged with one
armed robbery and, in a separate complaint, with carrying a concealed weapon.

During his initial appearance on those two charges on Nov. 27, the
man said he lived with the woman in an apartment at Woodview Court.
Detectives immediately got a search warrant for the apartment, and
photos were found of the woman that matched bank surveillance
pictures of a woman involved in the robberies, Verveer said.

The woman was arrested Nov. 28 at the America's Best Inn at the
Beltline and Interstate 90. She had the mans bag, which contained a
gun and ammunition, Verveer said. Clothing and other items found in
the woman's motel room also linked the pair to the robberies, the
complaint said.

After her arrest, the woman told police: "I rob banks. I really don't
remember dates," Verveer said.

The woman was scheduled to appear in court last week, but had to be
hospitalized as a result of heroin withdrawal, Verveer said.

According to a criminal complaint, the woman told police she began
using heroin when she was 18 and has been shooting heroin daily for
the past five years. She said most of the robberies occurred because
she was sick as a result of drug use and desperate, the complaint said.

The woman told police she thought the robberies began after she got
kicked out of a methadone program in early July, and a previous
boyfriend of three or four years left her and took all of the money
they had accumulated together, the complaint said.

She said the man, her boyfriend whom she had been living with since
this summer, was trying to help her, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, the woman told police she and the man
picked banks that had few people in them.

In October, the arrests of three people broke up what police
described as another bank robbery ring responsible for 14 robberies
in Madison and the Wisconsin Dells area. A fourth member of that
alleged ring, David Bracey, was killed Sept. 16 in a shootout with
police in a Wisconsin Dells motel.

There have been 24 bank robberies in Madison this year. The previous
recent high was 19 in 2001. Dane County also has seen a marked
increase in bank robberies this year from the recent high of 24 in 2001.