CARBONDALE, Ill.
A Carbondale police officer has been suspended without pay after prosecutors alleged he and his neighbor were the two men that robbed a bank at gunpoint while wearing motorcycle helmets.
Jackson County prosecutors charged city patrolman James Gaddis, 26, and Anthony Fike, 35, both of Murphysboro, in the Oct. 9 holdup of the First Southern Bank in this southern Illinois city.
Authorities would not discuss a possible motive in the holdup, though Jackson County Circuit Court files show that Flagstar Bank filed mortgage foreclosure proceedings against Gaddis in December.
Investigators say two robbers wearing motorcycle helmets entered the bank and one suspect held an employee at gunpoint while the other snatched cash from the bank's drawers. Investigators say the suspects fled on motorcycle, making off with about $22,000. No one was injured.
Gaddis, a Carbondale patrolman since 2004, was arrested Wednesday and remained jailed Friday on $1 million bond. Fike surrendered to Jackson County deputies Thursday and was freed on $50,000 bond later that day.
It was not immediately clear whether either man has an attorney. Gaddis and Fike do not have listed home telephone numbers.
"If the charge is proven true, Mr. Gaddis not only violated the law but also betrayed his oath of office and the trust which his fellow officers and the citizens of this community placed in him," Mike Wepsiec, the county's state's attorney, told reporters Thursday in announcing the charges.
The prosecutor declined to discuss the evidence but said the investigation made it "abundantly clear a police officer was involved," alleging without elaboration that Gaddis "used some of his tools as a police officer to perpetrate the robbery."
Messages seeking comment were left Friday by The Associated Press with Wepsiec and interim Police Chief Jeff Grubbs, whose offices said they were out of the office for the day.
Preliminary hearings for Gaddis and Fike are scheduled for Jan. 30.
Information: http://www.wrex.com/Global/story.asp?S=9685589
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