Man admits role in bank scheme

New Yorker, with accomplice, scammed LR sites of $11,000

A New York City man accused of working in concert with another New York man to fraudulently obtain money from several Little Rock Bank of America branches pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and is facing a possible sentence of 30 years in prison.

Patrick Cooper, 57, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker, admitting that he and his co-defendant, Jodaine Kamawu James, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., had conspired together to steal money from the bank branches by impersonating account holders. James pleaded guilty Dec. 2 before Baker and is awaiting sentencing.

Cooper was accused, along with James, of visiting several Bank of America sites on Jan. 15, 2019, and withdrawing money from accounts by impersonating the account owners. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jana Harris, Cooper and James visited six bank branches and succeeded in withdrawing $11,000 from two of them.

Harris said that the two men were arrested after a branch manager recognized Cooper from internal emails that had circulated warning of the fraud and describing Cooper's appearance. A short time after police arrived, they spotted the car that Cooper and James were in a short distance away and arrested them.

A search of the men's car -- which had been rented in Oklahoma City -- found $13,000 in cash, four Social Security cards with four matching state driver's licenses in the names of Bank of America customers -- but with Cooper's photo on the driver's licenses. Harris said that a C0nnecticut driver's license with James' photo and a Bank of America debit card also were recovered.

Harris said Cooper was captured on bank security video on Jan. 14, 2019, at three Bank of America sites in Tulsa making fraudulent withdrawals totaling $19,000.

Cooper agreed with Harris' statement of facts but nearly derailed the plea hearing several times as Baker attempted to understand if Cooper truly wished to enter the plea. After asking for, and receiving permission to confer with his attorney, Cara Boyd Connors of Little Rock, Cooper could be heard speaking indistinctly and could be seen gesturing intently toward court papers sitting on the table in front of him. When Baker asked for Cooper's plea, he did not directly address the question but instead pivoted to a complaint about his detention conditions at the Greene County jail.

"Mr. Cooper advises me that his conditions as to detention... are not acceptable," Connors said, after another short conference. "He is entering a plea of guilty not only because he does not disagree with that he is accused of but he is also pleading guilty as a, uh, exit plan, I guess is the best way to characterize it."

"I don't have to take your plea today," Baker said to Cooper. "If I'm not satisfied there's a factual basis for the plea, that you're doing this with advice of counsel and that you're entering into it willingly, I don't have to take it."

Baker noted that Cooper's acceptance of his guilty plea comprised one issue and his dissatisfaction with his detention conditions constituted a separate issue not related to his plea.

"I can't guarantee that conditions at the Bureau of Prisons will be any better or any different in any meaningful way other than what you are currently under," Baker said.

Cooper said later during the hearing that although he liked the food at Greene County and the jail was kept clean, the absence of a sheet for his mattress was interfering with his sleep. At Greene County, he said, prisoners were given only a plastic mattress and a blanket but no sheet.

Connors told Baker that she believed Cooper was entering a plea because he felt pressured by the need to get out of the Greene County jail despite his insistence that his plea was voluntary.

Harris disagreed.

"Mr. Cooper seems at himself," she said. "I think that's apparent from all the questions he has asked. He does not give the appearance of someone who doesn't understand what's going on."

Turning to Cooper, Baker said, "Here's the reality of the situation. Folks who are in custody don't get to pick where they're housed. They don't. That's part of it. You're detained. You don't get to pick the facility.

"I don't get to pick the facility," she continued. "I don't get to pick it now and I don't get to pick it when you go to the Bureau of Prisons. It's out of my control."

Finally, after another recess of nearly 25 minutes to allow Connors and Cooper to reach a resolution, Baker accepted Cooper's guilty plea. He will be sentenced at a later date after submission and review of a presentencing report by the office of probation and pretrial services.

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