Pubdate: Thu, 24 Nov 2005
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2005 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author: Brendan Lyons, Staff Writer

LAWYER FACING ROBBERY COUNTS

Andrew McKenna, former attorney for prominent law firm, held in bank, 
store holdups; defender blames heroin addiction

ALBANY -- A heroin addiction may have led a former U.S. Justice 
Department attorney, who had once worked at one of the area's most 
prestigious law firms, to allegedly carry out a recent robbery spree 
targeting at least two banks and a grocery store, authorities said.

Andrew J. McKenna, 36, was arrested Monday morning by state troopers 
who spotted his green pickup truck on I-90 in Albany, moments after 
he allegedly robbed a bank in the village of Nassau. He also is 
accused of robbing a Price Chopper supermarket in Malta last Saturday 
night, and is a suspect in an Oct. 17 bank heist in Lake George 
Village, authorities said.

Advertisement In each case, McKenna, who lives in Averill Park, 
passed notes to tellers or clerks claiming that he had a gun and 
demanding cash, according to court records and law enforcement 
officials familiar with the robberies.

McKenna, a former U.S. Marine Corps Judge Advocate General (JAG) 
attorney, strode into federal court in Albany Wednesday afternoon 
handcuffed, shackled and suited in an Albany County jail jumpsuit as 
his girlfriend, who is about 7 months pregnant, sat in the small 
courtroom choking back tears.

"No more. I swear. No more," McKenna mouthed to his girlfriend, as he 
waited for his detention hearing to begin.

McKenna had once worked for O'Connell & Aronowitz in Albany, the firm 
of prominent criminal defense attorney Stephen R. Coffey. He was 
represented in federal court by a federal public defender, Gene V. Primomo.

"He's a bright and talented individual," Primomo said, adding that "a 
drug addiction" is at the heart of the case.

That was clear in federal court Wednesday as U.S. Magistrate Randolph 
F. Treece ordered McKenna held in the custody of U.S. Marshals with a 
recommendation he undergo psychiatric counseling and receive 
treatment for heroin addiction at Albany County jail. Treece made the 
recommendation after meeting privately in his chambers for about 30 
minutes with Primomo and Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Moreno.

As recently as last summer, McKenna had worked for Albany Management, 
a property management company operated by the Colonie-based Laberge 
Group, one of the region's largest engineering and development firms. 
In that capacity, McKenna had been a close confidante of Ronald H. 
Laberge, who founded the firm and was the target of a federal 
investigation into a bribery scandal involving state government contracts.

Laberge was sentenced in September to five years' probation after 
pleading guilty to making a $2,500 bribery payment to a state leasing 
agent who manipulated a rental contract in Troy that would have 
netted Laberge several hundred thousand dollars profit.

While McKenna was at O'Connell & Aronowitz, he had negotiated with 
federal prosecutors as the FBI sought to enlist Laberge as an 
informant to penetrate state government and political corruption. 
Coffey had served as Laberge's attorney of record in the case, but 
officials close to the investigation said McKenna was also heavily 
involved in the defense early on.

It's not clear whether McKenna will be prosecuted in both state and 
federal courts.

On Wednesday, Saratoga County sheriff's investigators lodged an 
arrest warrant at Albany County jail for McKenna. They have accused 
him of stealing $727 from a Price Chopper in Malta last Saturday 
night. Surveillance cameras captured the heist, and a clerk who 
handed McKenna the cash was able to identify McKenna from a photo 
spread, officials close to the case said.

But federal authorities may not have jurisdiction over that heist 
because it did not involve a federally-insured institution.

McKenna also is a suspect in the Oct. 17 robbery of a TD Bank North 
branch in Lake George Village. Like the bank heist in Nassau, the 
suspect in that case was wearing a suit, tie and a baseball hat as he 
approached a teller and handed her a note demanding cash and claiming 
to have a gun. A federal official familiar with the investigation 
said police have forensic evidence, possibly fingerprints of the 
suspect, that are being analyzed.

McKenna was a staff attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in 
Washington, D.C., for at least two years. He returned to Albany about 
three years ago and went to work at O'Connell & Aronowitz, according 
to lawyers who know him.
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