Court News
Arrest made after bank robbery
By Paula Freund Jul 10, 2002
Police arrested a suspect within 25 minutes of a bank robbery on Bloomington's east side Tuesday. Officers were called to Fifth Third Bank's College Mall Banking Center, 3200 E. Third St., at 10:37 a.m. Tuesday. By 11 a.m., they had a suspect and money reportedly taken in the robbery in custody. Rene C. Jackson, 25, 714 S. Fairview St., No. 3, was booked into Monroe County Jail at 1:15 p.m. on a preliminary charge of robbery, a Class C felony. She was being held in lieu of $5,000 surety and $500 cash bond. No one was hurt during the robbery. Two or three customers and four employees were inside the bank at the time, said Bloomington police Sgt. Bob Neely. Bank employees and witnesses told police that a heavyset white man approached a male teller and handed him a note ordering him not to set off an alarm or call police, Neely said. No weapon was displayed in the robbery, he said. Store employees called police after the suspect left with an undisclosed amount of cash, Neely said. They told police that the robber was a white man about 5-foot-6-inches tall and weighing more than 200 pounds, Neely said. They said the man left the bank on foot, heading toward College Mall, Neely said." Officers got in the area at approximately two to three minutes after the alarm call went out," he said. Officer Dan Harrell spotted the 5-foot-4, 210-pound Jackson on the east side of the mall, Neely said. Harrell and another officer apprehended her without incident as she came out of a mall bathroom, according to police. Jackson did not have a weapon when she was arrested, Neely said. Police allege Jackson went into the bathroom to throw away the sack that had contained the cash and to put the money inside her wallet, Bloomington police Detective Kay Minger said. Tellers later identified Jackson as being the bank robber, Neely said. "The description they gave us was right on target," he said, except for the robber 's gender. Minger and Detective Joe Sanders interviewed Jackson at the police station and later booked her into jail. Minger said Jackson, who was wearing a brace on her leg, intended to spend the money at the mall." It wasn't much of a challenge," Minger said. "She wasn't trying to hide. She had some money and she was going to go shopping." A small amount of money was taken in the robbery, said Natalie Mougeotte, public relations director for Fifth Third Bank regional office in Indianapolis. She said the bank 's employees followed appropriate procedures in response to a robbery. Reporter Paula Freund can be reached at 331-4370 or by e-mail at
pfreund@heraldt.com.
Feb 8, 2003
Rene C. Jackson, 26, 714 S. Fairview St., has pleaded guilty to felony robbery of a teller at Fifth Third Bank on East Third Street last July 9, taking $1,195.She was sentenced by Monroe Circuit Judge Douglas Bridges to four years in prison, with credit for seven months already served in jail, the rest suspended and two years on probation.
