LawFuel.com – Lawyer News Daily –
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced that former New York
City Police Officer CHRISTIAN TORRES was sentenced today in
Manhattan federal court to 78 months in prison for armed bank
robbery, bank larceny, and conspiracy to defraud a bank. United
States District Judge LAURA TAYLOR SWAIN ordered twelve of the 78
months imposed today to run consecutively to the 121 monthsentence
previously imposed on TORRES for a separate armed bank
robbery, and a related firearms offense, in the United States
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
According to the Indictment and Complaints previously
filed in the case, as well as statements made during today’s and
prior court proceedings:
Between June 2007 and April 2008, TORRES and his former
girlfriend, CHRISTINA DASRATH, a teller at the Sovereign Bank
branch at 57 Avenue A, New York, New York, conspired to defraud
the bank by staging a phony bank robbery. Specifically, on June
8, 2007, TORRES entered the bank and handed DASRATH, at her
teller station, a note directing her to “empty both drawers” and
threatening to “start shooting.” DASRATH then gave TORRES
$16,305 from her teller drawer, a portion of which TORRES later
shared with her.
On November 16, 2007, making use of bank security
information DASRATH had provided to him, TORRES came back to rob
the same bank. As employees were opening the branch he
approached them and ordered them to open the door. When one of
the employees refused, TORRES threatened to kill the employee and
pulled back the side of his jacket to reveal the black handle of
a gun that was tucked into his waistband. Once inside the bank,
TORRES ordered the employees not to look at him, to leave their
cell phones on a table, and to open the vault. TORRES then
ordered one of the employees to tie up the legs of another
employee. After retrieving latex gloves from a duffel bag he was
carrying and putting on a black ski mask, TORRES instructed one
of the employees to put money inside the bag. TORRES then
ordered the employees into the vault, took their keys, and told
them to stay in the vault for ten minutes, adding that if one of
them looked at him funny, he would be back. TORRES absconded
with approximately $102,000, a portion of which he later shared
with DASRATH.
CHRISTINA DASRATH previously pleaded guilty to bank
fraud, bank larceny, and false statements charges on September 5,
2008 and was sentenced by Judge SWAIN to 30 months in prison on
January 9, 2009.
Mr. BHARARA also praised the outstanding investigative
work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal
Affairs Bureau of the Police Department of the City of New York.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Public
Corruption Unit. Assistant United States Attorney DANIEL STEIN
is in charge of the prosecution.
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