| Three charged with KleinBank robbery |
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| Wednesday, 02 December 2009 | |
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Managing editor Three people have now been charged in Anoka County District Court in connection with the armed robbery of KleinBank, 3070 Coon Rapids Blvd., Coon Rapids, the morning of Nov. 17. Two allegedly committed the robbery; the third was the getaway driver. Two suspects were arraigned in court Nov. 25 - Steven Devon Simmons, 25, Minneapolis, and Rhonda Lynn Anderson, 42, Little Canada, both on first-degree aggravated robbery charges. James Joseph Rademacher, 21, Little Canada, was arraigned in court Nov. 20 on the first-degree aggravated robbery count. Bail was set at $200,000. He is due back in court Dec. 17. Rademacher is also a suspect in the Sept. 30 robbery at Massage Envy, Coon Rapids, and both he and Simmons together, individually or with others are believed to have committed other robberies in the metro area, according to Coon Rapids Police Det. Daren Keasling, who is investigating the case. This was the second armed robbery of KleinBank this year and there was a connection between both Rademacher, Simmons and the man convicted for the April robbery, Neiman Regis Adams, who is now serving time in federal prison. Adams and Rademacher were previously involved together in a felony theft in the northern Minnesota city of Virginia, for which Rademacher was sentenced in St. Louis County District Court Nov. 2 to probation for two years and five days in jail. During the investigation into the April bank robbery, police executed a search warrant at a nearby apartment, from which Adams had been seen leaving before his arrest, and Simmons was present in the apartment. Approximately 9:15 a.m. Nov. 17, two males, one of whom was armed with a small, silver semi-automatic handgun, entered KleinBank, demanded money and threatened two employees with the gun. The tellers gave the men cash, which the robbers stuffed in a cloth or canvas bag before leaving the bank. Video surveillance from the parking lot at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, which is just south of the bank, showed the suspects in a red, mid-sized passenger car about eight minutes before the robbery. They walked through the woods toward the bank, returning to the car about two minutes after the robbery. The vehicle has not been located. Bank employees gave descriptions of the two robbers to police. One was white and the other was black; both were wearing red or maroon bandanas over their faces up to their noses. The white male was described as being in his late teens or early 20s, weighing 135-140 pounds, having pronounced cheekbones and shaggy hair. He was wearing a white baseball cap with a “TC” logo on it and had a tattoo of the letters “De” on the left side of his neck written in cursive style, but the rest of the tattoo wasn’t visible because it was covered by the man’s shirt collar. Recalling the prior robbery at the bank in April and the arrest of Adams, Keasling said he was made aware that Adams had been arrested in Virginia for an earlier felony theft offense with an accomplice. That was Rademacher whose description was similar to that of the white suspect in the Nov. 17 robbery, including a visible tattoo on his neck that said “Dabria” written in cursive, according to the complaint. Police showed KleinBank employees a photo lineup that included Rademacher’s photo. While the employees were unable to positively identify anyone in the photo as the white suspect because of the bandana over his face, they alleged that Rademacher’s photo closely resembled the white suspect. And one of the employees allegedly positively identified the tattoo on Rademacher’s neck as being the same as the one on the white suspect’s neck. Investigators executed a search warrant Nov. 19 at Rademacher’s residence where they allegedly found a white baseball cap with the logo “TC” on it, as well as shoes that had sole impressions that appeared similar to footprints left at the scene of the robbery. A relative of Rademacher’s, who was at the residence when police arrived with the search warrant, alleged he had seen Rademacher and acquaintances in the house with a small, silver semi-automatic handgun. In addition, the relative alleged that Rademacher had cut his hair earlier in the day and police located blond hair clippings and a cordless hair clipper. The complaint alleges that the hair clippings were similar in length to those that bank employees described for the white robber. According to the complaint, police also located a large plastic bag in the living room which contained clothes that exactly matched those described by bank employees as worn by the robbers, as well as two maroon bandanas. The robber displaying the handgun was described as a black male, weighing 145 to 150 pounds, wearing baggy dark jeans and with visible acne or acne scars on his face. Simmons’ physical description from the April search warrant at the apartment seemed to be highly consistent with witness descriptions of the black suspect in the Nov. 17 KleinBank robbery, according to the complaint. Investigators took bank surveillance tape from the robbery and compared pictures of the black suspect with Simmons’ Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) photo and they allegedly appeared very similar. Nov. 23, investigators met with the mother of a woman, with whom Simmons has a child, and she allegedly identified him as the black suspect from still images taken from the bank surveillance tape. The same day, police executed a search warrant at Simmons’ home in Minneapolis, where he was arrested. During the search, investigators allegedly found a silver semi-automatic handgun that appeared to match the weapon used in the bank robbery, as well as currency, which was identified by the serial numbers as having been taken during the robbery. In a post-Miranda statement, Simmons allegedly admitted he committed the KleinBank robbery with Rademacher, stating the gun was not loaded - it allegedly had two bullets in it when police seized it - because he believed that if they got caught, the sentence would be lighter if the gun wasn’t loaded. Nov. 24, investigators took a post-Miranda statement from Anderson, who is Rademacher’s foster mother. She allegedly admitted that she had driven Rademacher and Simmons to KleinBank, waited in the car while they robbed the bank and was the getaway driver. She alleged that she knew that Rademacher and Simmons were committing the robbery and for her participation, they gave her money for gas and bought her food and other minor items. According to the complaint, Anderson also admitted that she was the getaway driver for Rademacher, Simmons and another suspect a 21-year-old white male as well as an-yet unidentified black male in a dozen other robberies in the Twin Cities area, including Massage Envy. A $500 reward has been offered by the Coon Rapids Crime Prevention Association, a nonprofit organization that accepts tax deductible donations to assist the police department in solving crimes in the community, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the two men who robbed Massage Envy, 12580 Riverdale Blvd., the evening of Sept. 30. Two men walked into Massage Envy and demanded money from the two employees inside the business. According to the Coon Rapids Police report, one took money from the cash register, while the second checked the back room for a safe. No weapon was seen or implied, the police report states. The robbers fled the store westbound behind the building. Both suspects were described as white males, 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 7 inches tall, slender build and mid to late teens in age. One had short dark hair and was wearing a red bandana around his face and a black baseball cap with multi-colored dice on it as well as a black hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans. The other man had dirty blond curly hair. He also wore a red bandana around his face, a dark baseball cap, dark hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans, In addition, this suspect had a dark-colored tear drop tattoo between his left thumb and forefinger as well as tattoos up his left arm. According to Coon Rapids Police Det. John Stahnke, who is investigating the Massage Envy and other robberies, formal charges are expected to be filed this week against Rademacher and the 21-year-old white male in the Massage Envy robbery. The other robberies to which Rademacher, Simmons, the 21-year-old white male and the unidentified black male have allegedly been linked include a Subway store in Maple Grove, Sept. 27; Sun Shoppe, Crystal, Oct. 9; Subway store in St. Anthony, Oct. 10; a different Subway store in Maple Grove, Oct. 11; Clean ’N Press in Eagan, Oct. 14; Silver Lake Cleaners in New Brighton, Oct. 22; Subway store in Vadnais Heights, Nov. 2; Plaza Cleaners in Lexington, Nov. 3; the Subway store in Maplewood, Nov. 8; and a tanning business in Little Canada, Nov. 11. Rademacher and the 21-year-old male are also suspected in the robber of a check cashing business in Superior, Wis., Nov. 2, which allegedly took place after Rademacher had been sentenced in St. Louis County District Court on the felony theft plea, Stahnke said. And later that same day, Nov. 2, the pair also allegedly robbed the Subway store in Vadnais Heights, he said. Peter Bodley is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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