By Jason Meisner
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — A convicted bank robber who escaped from a high-rise Loop federal jail nearly two years ago was coerced into the daring, dead-of-night jailbreak by a cellmate who appeared to have connections with corrupt guards, his lawyers claimed in a court filing Tuesday on the eve of his sentencing.
Prosecutors are using the escape from the Metropolitan Correctional Center to argue for a sentence of up to 40 years in prison for Joseph “Jose” Banks, an aspiring clothing designer who nonetheless was dubbed “The Second Hand Bandit” because of the shabby attire he wore during the series of bank heists. He was convicted of two violent “takeovers” and two attempted heists that garnered nearly a combined $600,000 in loot.
In his court filing Tuesday, Banks’ attorney, Beau Brindley, asked U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to impose a prison term of only 15 years, arguing it was Banks’ cellmate, Kenneth Conley, who came up with the daring escape plan and “threatened to kill” Banks if he did not assist him.
Brindley has remained Banks’ attorney despite facing felony charges of his own alleging he coached witnesses to lie in testimony. The perjury charges are not related to Banks’ case.
Prosecutors have said Conley and Banks cut a hole in a concrete wall and used a rope fashioned from bedsheets and dental floss to scale down 17 stories before dawn on Dec. 18, 2012, and hail a cab. After a massive manhunt, Banks was arrested two days later in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Conley remained on the loose for 18 days until he was found sleeping in a basement furnace room at a Palos Hills apartment complex.
Conley, also a convicted bank robber, has been sentenced to a total of 23½ years in prison. He’s currently serving time at a supermax prison in Colorado, where inmates deemed dangerous are held in solitary confinement, including Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In his court filing, Brindley claimed that Banks was afraid of Conley because of his violent background and “what appeared to be connections with certain guards at the MCC.”
“Mr. Banks believed that Conley had these connections because, despite the grinding and pounding noise of the window being cut away, no one ever challenged Conley,” the filing stated. “The cell inspections that should have been done were not conducted. Everything Mr. Banks saw suggested that Conley had connections to the guards and that any attempt to thwart Conley’s efforts could have resulted in serious injury to Mr. Banks.”
Conley also coerced Banks into helping him over a wall due to a physical problem Conley was having, according to the filing.
"(Banks) wants the court to know that he did indeed feel fear of Conley and his apparent connections to prison guards, which contributed to his willingness to escape,” Brindley said.
Brindley said Banks “does not deny that he constructed the rope and harness” for the escape or that he was attempting to hide from law enforcement. But he noted that once he was free, Banks did not steal cars or commit robberies for money to stay on the run.
“Instead, Mr. Banks went back to the only neighborhood he had ever known and awaited inevitable arrest,” Brindley said in the filing. “When the agents came roaring in with their flash-bang incendiaries and guns drawn, what did they find? Mr. Banks had no firearm. He had no weapon of any kind. He gave no indication of resistance.”