YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A suspect in two local bank robberies who led federal authorities and police on a lengthy chase earlier this month before being arrested will remain in federal detention on a federal parole violation.
On Friday, James Verdream, 59, waived both a detention hearing and a preliminary hearing on the parole violation before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Parker in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio.
Judge Parker found there was probable cause to find Verdream of violating his supervised release from the U.S. District Court of New Mexico. A hearing on the violation has yet to be set.
Verdream is accused of robbing an Austintown bank on May 2 and a bank later in the day in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania. He is also accused of the May 9 robbery of a Girard bank.
He was arrested on May 11 in a chase that culminated on State Route 11 in Austintown. He was being chased by U.S. Marshals at the time as well as Austintown police.
Verdream served four years in federal prison for a 2014 bank robbery in New Mexico and was placed on parole, which is known in the federal system as supervised release, when he was done with his sentence.
Verdream faces charges in Pennsylvania for the bank he is accused of robbing there. He has yet to be charged in federal court or state court here for the bank robberies he is accused of committing.