Rothmund pleads guilty to Albion bank robbery

Rothmund in his July mugshot

ALBION – Jeremy Rothmund, 30, pleaded guilty today to first-degree robbery in Orleans County Court today. The Rochester man will be sentenced to no more than 15 years in state prison as part of a plea deal.

He will be sentenced by Judge James Punch on March 3 at 2 p.m.

In an Oct. 21 court appearance, Rothmund confessed in court that he robbed the Bank of America in Albion on July 2, showing up at the bank wearing a mask and threatening a clerk with a bomb that later was discovered to be fake.

Rothmund faced a maximum of 20 years in state prison. The plea reduces the max to 15 years.

The plea deal doesn’t include Rothmund’s admitted role with two other bank robberies in the town of Greece. Rothmund on Oct. 16 also injured a corrections officer in the county jail. The plea for the Albion robbery doesn’t include that incident, either.

In the October court appearance, Rothmund said his girlfriend, Elyse A. Hoffer, didn’t know he was robbing banks when she drove him to the locations. Rothmund said he told her to park behind the Freeze-Dry building on Route 31 near the railroad tracks while he went to buy drugs in Albion on July 2.

Rothmund returned with a bag full of $18,000. He said he told Huffer to drive fast out of town. (The two were later stopped and arrested in Holley after a resident identified them in Albion and called the police.)

Punch on Oct. 21 questioned Rothmund about the claim that Huffer didn’t know she was driving the getaway car from a robbery. Rothmund told the judge she didn’t know beforehand if he was robbing a bank, but she later realized it.

Rothmund in court today said Huffer did aid him in the robberies.