The crime that I see the federal government investigating and prosecuting a lot is these robbery crimes where people are following their victims around, either jewelers or other victims with cash from banks, and then they will do some sort of a distraction maneuver.  For example, they'll pop their tire.

The person comes out to change it, they run in, grab the jewelry, grab the money or maybe the person comes from the bank, they follow the person from the bank and if the person leaves the money in the car, they break the car window and take the money or they just come and threaten and strong arm and use a weapon to take the money from the person.

Additionally, if they're high-profile criminals, they'll often follow jewelers, for example, in teams to try to wait until the jeweler leaves the jewels they're carrying with them. Then, they'll either distract the person or simply grab the jewels and run.

Robbery Distraction Crews

So, many of these distraction robbery crews are getting away with hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on whether they are lucky enough to grab jewels worth that much.  The feds even have a difficult time trying to catch these people because many of the actions they're engaging in are innocent.

They're just walking into a bank and looking at somebody.  They're driving behind somebody and following them.  To actually catch them in the act, the way the feds investigate these cases is by identifying who they suspect is involved in these robbery distraction crimes, and then they follow and surveil them, often using video surveillance, witness statements, and physical evidence.

They will watch them, videotape them, take notes on what they're doing, and then hope to catch them in the act of a distraction robbery, and eventually put all the pieces together.  Sometimes, this can take months, even years, for the federal authorities to prove these cases and apprehend these individuals.

Usually, they will use a conspiracy theory to try to prosecute the people involved in these distraction robberies, as there are often multiple perpetrators, and not everyone is involved in the same way.

One person's job may only be to be the lookout during a distraction robbery.  Another person may be involved in finding someone or a location to rob and then providing that information to others who actually commit the robbery.  Another person may simply be a driver, transporting the individuals who are committing the robbery.

Conspiracy to Commit Robbery

Once everybody gets arrested, of course, they're going to say, I didn't do this.  I didn't do that.  The feds are going to say, well, if you agree with a group of people to commit these distraction robberies. You play a part in that robbery with the goal of stealing somebody's property, and you agree to be involved in that conspiracy; then we're going to convict each of you as though each one of you did every single act of the conspiracy.

That's the conspiracy law related to these distraction robberies, and it's designed to ensure that all those involved in the crime are held accountable. It really allows the government to cast a fairly broad net in trying to catch people involved in these crimes.

Another big issue in these cases is restitution.  In other words, when federal prosecutors file distraction robbery charges against an individual in these federal criminal cases, they typically attempt to hold each individual in the indictment responsible for all the restitution in the case.

  Ultimately, it will be up to the judge to decide whether a particular person is responsible for a specific robbery and, therefore, liable for restitution. The judge will consider the evidence presented and the arguments made by both the prosecution and the defense before making a decision.

However, just like the conspiracy net in these robbery cases can ensnare defendants who only engage in certain activities, such as following someone, it can also lead to restitution being initiated against each defendant under the same theory: that they're all agreeing to commit robberies and are part of a crew that is committing these robberies.

So, you would have to show, in order to escape responsibility for restitution in one of these distraction robberies that you had nothing to do with a particular robbery and didn't even know that the robbery was going to occur. Then you can start to mount this argument.

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