Boston Man Sentenced in String of Bank Robberies

BOSTON, MA—A Boston man was sentenced today in federal court on bank robbery charges.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation – Boston Field Division; and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, announced today that FRANK PORTER, 65, of Boston, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel to 84 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and restitution in the amount of $6,922.00. On June 9, 2010, PORTER pled guilty to four counts of bank robbery.

At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the court that had the case proceeded to trial, the government’s evidence would have proven that on August 17, 2007, an individual, later identified as PORTER, entered the Mercantile Bank in Boston. PORTER approached a teller and demanded that she give him money from her drawer. As the teller was complying, another teller observed the disturbance and activated a silent alarm. Throughout the incident PORTER threatened the teller, gesturing to his waist indicating that he had a gun. PORTER took the proceeds and was headed to the door when he was intercepted by responding Boston Police officers and was taken into custody after a brief struggle. PORTER who had been released from prison a few months earlier, was a suspect in a series of robberies occurring in the Boston area weeks prior. At the plea hearing he additionally admitted to robbing the Sovereign Bank in Boston on August 10, 2007, the Salem Five Bank in Lynn on August 3, 2007 and the Century Bank in Boston on July 27, 2007.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Bank Task Force and the Boston Police. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth G. Shine of Ortiz’s Major Crime Unit