Trial Begins for Officer Charged in Bank Robbery

LOS ANGELES —  David Anthony Mack, a onetime Los Angeles police officer accused of robbing a Bank of America branch near USC of $722,000, went on trial Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court.

Prosecutors say Mack, a highly regarded nine-year LAPD veteran, was motivated by mounting personal debts when he and two unidentified accomplices held up the Jefferson Boulevard bank branch on Nov. 6, 1997.

When they arrested him a month later, investigators said they found records showing that shortly after the robbery, the 37-year-old police officer repaid about $30,000 of his debts, deposited $8,000 in his checking account and purchased a vehicle and new household furnishings.

The bulk of the stolen money is still missing, however.

Mack, who is married, was allegedly helped during the armed robbery by a girlfriend, Errolyn Romero, a bank branch employee who ordered an excessively large amount of cash on the day of the holdup and then let Mack through two bullet-proof doors into the bank’s vault.

Romero claims that she acted under duress. She will be tried separately.

Mack, who has been held without bail since his arrest, says he is a victim of mistaken identity. Two Bank of America employees who were inside the vault have identified him as of one of the bandits.

After a jury was selected Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen G. Wolfe and defense lawyer Donald Re made brief opening statements outlining their cases. The prosecution will call its first witnesses today.