Prison, Restitution in Franklin Bank Robbery

PRESS RELEASE
May 6, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO
Phone: (856) 384-5617; Pager (856) 251-4736
Re.: 7 yrs NJSP, $7,600 payback in bank robbery

Charls B. Koch (DOB 7/27/82), of Stratford, Camden County NJ and Cheri Harper (DOB 10/24/83), of Malaga, Gloucester County NJ were each sentenced in Woodbury today (5/6) to seven years in state prison and ordered to make $7,600 in restitution to Newfield National Bank for their admitted robbery of the bank’s Franklin Township NJ branch at 219 Delsea Drive on Jan. 8, 2010.

Under terms of first-degree robbery pleas negotiated with Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Joseph More, the defendants will be ineligible for parole until they serve 85 percent of their sentences.

In their guilty pleas on March 14, the defendants said they entered the bank with Harper carrying a concealed knife and Koch telling bank employees he had a bomb, though none was shown. They fled with cash taken from tellers and were arrested together in Oklahoma during a motor vehicle stop on Jan. 13, 2010. Harper claimed they were en route to Las Vegas to marry.