The alleged getaway car?
Sometimes, the practice of law is nothing more than drudgery. Sometimes, lawyers get tired of doing the same thing, day in and day out. Why not mix things up and do something exciting from time to time? Why not… help plan an armed robbery at the uSpoon, a local frozen yogurt shop?
This is what Diana Beth Denrich, a 2004 graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, stands accused of doing. The family law practitioner was arrested on Friday, and charged with armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
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The Baltimore Sun has some additional details on the crime:
Diana Beth Denrich
Police said a man with a handgun, [later identified as David Monroe Winder,] entered the uSpoon store on Sept. 27 while [Paula] Papanikos and another employee were working.
He pointed a gun at Papanikos and another worker and demanded money, police said. He fled with an unspecified amount of money from the register, as well as the employees’ cell phones and the store phone.
A surveillance camera captured his image, police said, and a witness in the parking lot saw the suspect get into a gray minivan. Denrich owns a gray Honda Odyssey, police said.
Once he was apprehended, Winder admitted that he’d robbed the store, and told police that Denrich and Papanikos planned the whole thing and asked him to carry it out for them as the alleged gunman. According to investigators, one month after the froyo robbery, a neighbor spotted Denrich, Papanikos, and a third man whom she introduced as “David” (i.e., David Winder) in Denrich’s minivan at a local gas station.
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Denrich, who looks rather cheerful in her mug shot, has no disciplinary history, and both she and her lawyer refused to comment on the charges she’s currently facing.
Best of luck to Diana Beth Denrich as she mounts her defense. If we might make a suggestion for the future, a minivan probably isn’t the best getaway car.
Attorney charged with driving getaway van in armed robbery of Owings Mills yogurt shop [Baltimore Sun]
Family law attorney is charged with driving getaway van in armed robbery of frozen yogurt shop [ABA Journal]