Former City of Pittsburgh Police Officer Sentenced for Making False Statements to Federal Agents

PITTSBURGH, PA – A former City of Pittsburgh Police Officer and resident of Allegheny County was sentenced in federal court to one year of probation with 90 days of home detention for his conviction on two counts of making false statements to government agents, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

Senior United States District Judge Arthur J. Schwab imposed the sentence on Antoine Cain, age 50. According to information presented to the Court, Mr. Cain, who was a 25-year veteran police officer for the City of Pittsburgh at the time, provided false information on two occasions to federal agents in the course of a federal investigation into an armed bank robbery that occurred in January of 2018 at the Citizens Bank in Crafton, PA.

Despite knowing the identity of the individual who had robbed the bank – that is, Brent Richards, who is the son of Melissa Kane, the woman with whom Mr. Cain was in a relationship – on two separate occasions in July of 2018, when questioned by federal agents, Cain denied knowing who had robbed the bank. It was not until he was confronted a third time by federal agents, in September of 2018, and informed by those agents that they had information that he did know the identity of the bank robber, that Cain admitted that he knew Brent Richards had robbed the bank and failed to tell federal agents on the two previous occasions that he had spoken with them. Specifically, Cain admitted that Brent Richards told him that he had "hit" a bank, which Cain understood to mean that Brent Richards had committed a bank robbery, and Melissa Kane told him that Brent Richards had robbed the Citizens Bank, wearing a mask and using a bb gun and that Brent Richards had been covered up so law enforcement could not prove that it was Brent Richards who had robbed the bank.

Both Ms. Kane and Mr. Richards have plead guilty in federal court in their respective cases and are awaiting sentencing.

Assistant United States Attorneys Rebecca L. Silinski and Eric G. Olshan prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Antoine Cain.