by David Flint
Chad Rubin, the North Adams man who five years ago held up the Fleet Bank in Berlin, was indicted last month by a Rensselaer County grand jury on charges of criminal solicitation and conspiracy. The same grand jury on November 6 added one more count of criminal solicitation and three more counts of conspiracy. According to the indictment, Rubin, while in prison at Greenhaven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County, conspired to rob the Berlin bank again, kill at least one employee of the bank and kidnap and kill other people. The indictment further states that Rubin went so far as to actually mail a letter detailing the layout of the bank, now a branch of the Bank of America, to a Post office box in Troy.
The indictment did not name the persons who were threatened in Rubin’s plot, but a press release from Troop G of the New York State Police indicates that part of the conspiracy was “to kidnap and murder former Rensselaer County District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis.”
A lengthy investigation conducted by the State Police in cooperation with the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office and assisted by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Correctional Services culminated in the November arraignment of Rubin in Rensselaer County Court and the disclosure of the indictment.
Rubin, now 30 years old, was serving an eight-year sentence for robbing the bank in Berlin. He walked into the bank on a Wednesday morning in June 2004 and handed the teller a note that indicated he had a weapon. He reportedly tied up two female employees with electrical tape and made off with the contents of the teller’s drawer, about $1,600. There were two customers in the bank at the time, but somehow they were not aware that a holdup was taking place. A surveillance camera in the bank recorded excellent pictures of the robber including the tattoo on his right forearm. Rubin was picked up about a month later in Norwich, CT. He pled guilty and was sentenced in January 2005.
County District Attorney Richard J. McNally Jr. said the conspiracy is a class B felony and carries the potential of an additional 25 year prison sentence for Rubin. The charge requires an overt act which Rubin committed by contacting a person on the outside, who was actually an undercover officer, and by mailing the letter detailing the layout of the bank.
McNally characterized Rubin’s plotting as “ludicrous” but added, “We treat it very seriously. The fact that he actually made contact with someone he thought could help him on the outside is unsettling. He fancies himself an outlaw. He probably couldn’t make it happen, but we don’t want to underestimate his depravity.”