YOU CAN BANK ON THIS ‘ROBBER’
No-bail ‘thief’ is eyed in 6th strike
What does he have to lose? An alleged serial bank robber whose spree has been emblematic of the shortcomings of statewide bail reform is believed to have struck again on Tuesday — at least his sixth holdup since Dec. 30, police sources said.
A crook matching the description of Gerod Woodberry strolled into the Citibank on Third Avenue near East 49th Street in Midtown at about 1:20 p.m. and passed a note to a teller — Woodberry’s go-to move, according to sources.
“This is a robbery. Large bills only please,” the note used in Tuesday’s robbery read, according to sources.
His good manne rs notwithstanding, the crook ultimately fled empty-handed.
“It fits the description and m.o. of him,” said one high-ranking police source, referring to Woodberry, who remained at large late Tuesday.
Another source said police came to believe Woodberry was behind Tuesday’s attempted theft after reviewing security footage from the bank branch.
And cops certainly know what he looks like. Woodberry, 42, was busted last week after allegedly knocking over four Chase branches, in Chelsea, the Upper West Side and the West Village between Dec. 30 and last Wednesday, each time slipping a note to a teller and racking up at least a cumulative $2,000, sources said.
Because he didn’t use a weapon in any of his alleged holdups, Woodberry was charged with grand larceny, a nonviolent felony no longer eligible for cash bail under the sweeping criminal-justice reform package that became state law on Jan. 1.
Accordingly, a Manhattan Criminal Court judge had no choice but to cut Woodberry loose at a hearing last Thursday for those alleged crimes — a break that even Woodberry found inconceivable.
“I can’t believe they let me out,” he marveled as he picked up his vouchered property at NYPD headquarters, sources previously told The Post. “What were they thinking?” Sure enough, just one day later on on Friday, Woodberry passed a demand note to a teller at a Chase branch on Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, and took off with more than $1,000 to add to his ill-gotten gains, according to police.
The South Carolina native was still at large following that robbery when, sources say, he allegedly struck Tuesday for a sixth time.
Even if police do catch up to Woodberry for the two most recent incidents, he will likely be back on the streets in no time under the bail restrictions that handcuff judges and prosecutors.
As after the fifth robbery, exasperated cops bemoaned getting repeat offenders off the street — only to see them shuttled back out of the halls of justice time and time again.
“It’s a circus,” said one highranking NYPD insider. “They made it this way, your local New York state politicians. Wait until a cop gets hurt responding, or a person fleeing the bank. We’ll see how they feel after that.”
Within days of the law hitting the books and the results being put on full display, state Republicans, moderate Democrats and even Mayor de Blasio were calling for Albany to scrap, or at least revamp, the new laws.
Gov. Cuomo, in a rare moment of lockstep with de Blasio, has agreed that “changes” are needed, but offered no specifics.
But state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D–Bronx) has dug in his heels, telling reporters that he intends to let the law play out.
For over seven months, we’ve been warning about the madness of the “no bail” law that kicked in Jan. 1 — yet we’re still shocked at how fast the outrages are now piling up. From today’s news alone:
Police believe that serial bank-robber Gerod Woodberry hit a sixth Chase branch on Tuesday. And if he’s arrested again, the law mandates his rapid release — again.
A grand jury has recommended Tiffany Harris, sprung twice in three days for assaults on passersby, be charged with three felony hate crimes for one of her recent attacks — yet she’ll still walk free Jan. 22 at the conclusion of a court-ordered psych evaluation, because the hate-crime charge isn’t one of the few that allow a judge to require bail.
Jordan Randolph, 40, was freed Monday after being charged in a drunk-driving crash that killed Jonathan Flores-Maldonado, 27, in Suffolk County.
Meanwhile, judges have plainly gotten the message to not require bail even when the law allows it: In a single day last week, Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Marguerite Dougherty released at least three defendants facing violent-felony charges with no bail.
One was an active-duty US Army soldier acused of firing a rifle out a window in Dyker Heights. Another allegedly shot two rounds at a vehicle, sending one woman he’d targeted to the hospital, in a drug-related attack that sparked a reprisal shooting, which, in turn, injured three innocents. In each case, prosecutors wanted $100,000 bail.
A related madness: Mayor de Blasio’s “sanctuary city” law. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they asked the city to hand over illegal immigrant Reeaz Khan, who’s now accused in the savage fatal beating of 92-year-old Maria Fuertes, six weeks earlier, after his arrest for attacking his own father — but the NYPD never honored the detainer request, ICE says.
We’ve supported rational criminal-justice reform, but New York politicians refuse to stop there — to the point of protecting clear menaces.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie still insists there’s no need to fix the no-bail law. And Senate Democrats on Tuesday pushed yet another criminal-justice reform, automatic parole hearings for convicts over 55.
How bad does it have to get before these lawmakers move to protect the public?