Accused ‘Red Line Robber’ to remain in federal custody

Suspect’s mother attends hearing

2-Sep-09 – The suspected “Red Line Robber” made a brief courtroom appearance on Wednesday morning. At a detention hearing and preliminary examination, Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez ordered Lance P. Dennie entitled to a court-appointed attorney. Public defender Robert Seeder told the judge Dennie has decided not to contest detention, and will remain in federal custody pending trial for armed bank robbery.

Dennie has been at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago since his arrest on Saturday. A criminal complaint filed last Thursday accuses the 44-year-old man of robbing the Charter One branch on Grand Avenue, four blocks from Marina City, on June 8. However, according to the FBI, he is believed responsible for eight other bank robberies – including the Chase branch at Marina City, which he is suspected of robbing twice.

(Left) Surveillance photo from March 10 robbery of Chase branch at Marina City.

Dennie’s mother, Vernetta, blew a kiss when he was led into the small courtroom by U.S. Marshals. She had not spoken to her son since last week, before the arrest. She described her son as gentle and mild-mannered. “He’s never been in any trouble before.”

Dennie did bear some resemblance to the robber in surveillance photos that were released to the news media following the robbery at Marina City on March 10, particularly his short beard. It was those photos that led to his arrest. Two Chicago police officers who worked at an unnamed school thought the man in the photos looked like an employee of the school. Investigators obtained a copy of Dennie’s driver’s license and agreed there was a resemblance. Fingerprints from a dye-stained newspaper discarded near one of the robberies, according to the complaint, “matched fingerprints [taken] from Lance Dennie when he was arrested by Chicago Police Officers in 2008.”

It is not clear how long ago Dennie worked at the school. According to his mother, he is not currently employed.

The FBI nicknamed the robber after the CTA Red Line, which it’s believed was used to get to the banks. Dennie lives just south of the Red Line station at 95th Street.

 Related story: Suspected Red Line Robber arrested