Union County Woman Admits Serving as the Getaway Driver During a Middlesex Bank Robbery

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey
January 30, 2013

NEWARK—A Union County, New Jersey woman today admitted serving as the getaway driver during the July 12, 2012 bank robbery of Unity Bank located at 1230 Bound Brook Road (Route 28) in Middlesex, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Teresa Webb, 41, of Plainfield, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court to an information charging her with one count of bank robbery.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On July 31, 2012, Claude Williams, 60, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was charged by complaint with six counts of bank robbery and two counts of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. In the course of those robberies, Williams would generally send an accomplice into the bank to case it shortly before he entered to commit the robbery.

Before the July 12, 2012, robbery, Webb entered the Unity Bank twice without doing any banking. A short while later, an unarmed, off-duty police officer observed Williams leave the bank, get into the rear of the getaway car, and crouch down. After noting the license plate number, the officer followed the car. Webb, who was driving the getaway car, attempted to elude the officer.

After Webb’s unsuccessful attempt to elude the officer, Williams got out of the car and pointed his gun at the officer, forcing her to leave the scene without apprehending Williams and Webb.

The bank robbery count to which Webb pleaded guilty is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gain or loss from the offense. Sentencing is scheduled for May 8, 2013.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents with the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge David Velazquez in Newark, with the investigation leading to the arrest. He also thanked the Somerset County Prosecutors Office and the Middlesex Borough, Piscataway, Clifton, Metuchen, North Plainfield, and Plainfield Police Departments for their work in this case.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Osmar J. Benvenuto of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark.