Home San Francisco Press Releases 2009 Christmas Grinch Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Bank Robbery
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Christmas Grinch Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Bank Robbery

U.S. Attorney’s Office September 18, 2009
  • Northern District of California (415) 436-7200

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Elisa Lipkins was sentenced yesterday to eight years in prison for robbing a Bank of America branch in Laurel Village, San Francisco, on December 23, 2008, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

Lipkins admitted that she threatened a bank teller and used a demand note to take $7,020 from the bank. The teller at the bank believed that Lipkins had a gun or other weapon in her jacket pocket. At the time of the robbery, Lipkins was housed in a halfway house in Oakland, serving the last months of a 70-month prison sentence for a 2004 bank robbery in San Francisco.

Lipkins, age 43, was sentenced by Chief United States District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker. Lipkins will be on supervised release, the federal equivalent of parole, for three years after she finishes her prison sentence. The Court also ordered her to pay $7,020 in restitution to the bank.

Lipkins pleaded guilty in June 2009 to one count of bank robbery, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). She was charged by Indictment in January 2009 after being arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at a halfway house in Oakland. According to court records, FBI agents recognized Lipkins on the security video from the bank.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nat Cousins prosecuted the case, with the help of assistant Rosario Calderon. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Further Information:

Case #: CR 09-0057 VRW

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's Web site at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges' calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court's Web site at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Jack Gillund at (415) 436-6599 or by e-mail at Jack.Gillund@usdoj.gov.

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