Parker found guilty
Former local business owner awaits sentencing
By DWIGHT OTWELL Cherokee Sentinel Editor

Leonard O. Parker was found guilty Thursday, convicted of all 10 counts in the robberies of two North Carolina banks in January 2006, including the First Citizens Bank branch in the Peachtree section of Cherokee County, NC.

Parker, who previously owned Mountain Max Auto Superstore in Union County, was charged with bank robbery and kidnapping in connection with the January 11, 2006 robbery of the Peachtree bank and the January 6 robbery of the Mooresville Savings Bank in Cornelius, North Carolina. Parker resided in Morganton, GA at the time of the robberies.

A federal Grand Jury in Bryson City took only an hour and 15 minutes to find Parker guilty of all 10 counts against him. It will be two months or longer before Parker is sentenced, prosecutor Don Gast said.

Parker began the trial defending himself but then asked that his stand-by defense attorney, Joel Trilling, defend him. Trilling had been appointed to defend Parker but Parker had fired him. Trilling was a stand-by counsel for Parker, advising him before Parker asked him to take over as his defense attorney.

Parker testified for himself and was his only witness. Parker claimed insanity because he said he quit taking Paxil, an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drug, during the time of the bank robberies.

There were five prosecution witnesses, including First Citizens Bank teller Jean Higdon and Parker's wife at the time of the robberies. They have since divorced.

Parker was found guilty of five charges for each of the two bank rob- beries. He was found guilty of bank robbery, assaulting a teller in a bank robbery, taking a teller in a bank robbery (kidnapping), use of a firearm during a bank robbery and possession of a firearm while being a convicted felon. Both robberies were similar, in that Parker used a pistol and forced tellers to drive him away from the bank to his getaway vehicle.

With the eight-woman, four-man jury out of the courtroom, Parker was escorted by federal officials into the courtroom with his arms cuffed behind him and his legs chained together. The handcuffs were taken off before the jury entered the room but the leg irons remained. Parker wore jeans, a short-sleeve shirt not tucked in and athletic shoes.

"Taking or not taking Paxil should not be a get out of jail free card," Gast said.

Federal Judge Lacy Thornburg said that for the jury to find Parker not guilty only by reason of insanity, the defendant must prove that he had a severe mental disease or defect at the time of the crime and that he was not able to understand what he was doing or to understand what he was doing was wrong.

Trilling, in his closing argument, said Parker didn't have the mindset to commit the crime. He wasn't in the habit of robbing banks, he said.

"He robbed two banks (with a few days time) and he testified that he had never even been in a fistfight," Trilling said.

Trilling reminded the jury that Parker testified that he went on buying sprees including getting up at 3 a.m. to go to Wal Mart.

"Leonard had a business and it was successful, even though he was going through bankruptcy," said Trilling. "Is it sensible to go to rob a bank without a mask when your face in on a (nearby) billboard?"

Trilling said photos of Parker in the bank show him smiling and cutting up with the tellers. He said this isn't the actions of a sane person.

Trilling said Leonard's former wife testified that Leonard caller her up and asked her to go gambling with him and he didn't act different than normal, even though he had just robbed two banks.

Parker was arrested at the hotel at Harrah's Cherokee Casino in Cherokee. His wife was with him. Parker's wife didn't know about the bank robberies, officials said.

"You are telling me that a guy threw away his life over $10,000 in bills that were a month late," Trilling said to the jury. "He (Parker) didn't say he didn't do it. He said he doesn't know why he did it. He can't control himself. He can't control those impulses."

Gist, in his closing argument, said Parker didn't act like he didn't know what he was doing. He hid his getaway car, he said. (Parker forced Higdon to drive him to the parking lot of Murphy Medical Center, where his getaway car was reportedly parked).

Gist said that in the Mooresville Savings Bank robbery, Parker at first passed himself off as a customer. In the Cherokee County bank robbery, he said he was a doctor. Parker got bank personal to show him the bank vault before he pulled a gun. This was goal oriented decision making, Gist said. In both cases Parker waited for customers to leave the banks before revealing himself as a bank robber, Gist said.

"He was laughing and smiling because he was 'Dr. Parker' and he wanted the tellers to show him the safety deposit boxes," Gist said. "He demanded the video tapes (of the robberies) both times and he got it once. He tried very hard not to get caught. (After the bank robbery) he went and paid his unpaid bills and then went gambling."

Parker testified that he quit taking Paxil at the end of December, 2005, shortly before the bank robberies.

Gist said Parker's former wife, Tracey Parker, testified that her routine was to give Parker his medicine every day.

Gist held up the Tarus PT 138 .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol which he said Parker used in the robberies. He said Parker later told investigators that he used a pellet gun in the robbery and that he threw it out of the car after the robberies.

"There was very little of Parker's testimony that was believable," Gist said. "He robs a bank and the next day pays his bills. His finances were going down the tube and he was over lavish with gifts to his wife. He robbed these banks and kidnapped the tellers. He did both bank robberies in the same way. He pointed the gun at six people. Jean Higdon came in (to court) and started crying and this is more than a year later (after the robbery). He traumatized these people."

Parker fled the First Citizens Bank in Peachtree with a plastic bag full of cash totaling about $20,000.

Parker was stopped by a highway patrolman for speeding a short distance from Murphy Medical Center. The trooper issued a ticket to Parker. The trooper later saw a security camera image of the robber and realized it looked like the man he had stopped.

Previously, Stan Gunter, district attorney for the Enotah Judicial Circuit that includes Union County, said that local officials had begun an investigation into wrongdoing involving Parker's business, Mountain Max. However, the investigation was turned over to federal law enforcement authorities.

Parker closed the doors of Mountain Max in 2005 and reportedly filed for Chapter 11 status. Investigators had reportedly seized computers and files from Mountain Max going back three months.

Parker faces a total maximum of 144 years in prison or a fine of $1.5 million or both. To the Publisher:

Dear Mr. Arnold,

My name is Peter Gatchell, your "ugly American" that you wrote some commentary about last June (http://www.unionsentinel. com/news/2006/0622/Opinion/042.html). My 23 year old daughter found your entertaining article online and forwarded to me for my viewing pleasure. Just thought I would give you some additional thoughts regarding this "soccer controversy."

First off, since you decided to partake in generalizations regarding myself, I will enlighten you. I have a Bachelor of Science degree from Miami University in Ohio. I majored in Aeronautics with a minor in Mathematics. While attending, I did play ice hockey for 4 years. I was also an avid bicycle rider inthe cycle club we had. During high school, I played and lettered in baseball and golf. I can't say that I am still as "athletic" as I was then, but am certainly an avid sports fan and still golf & cycle regularly. Both my grown children, are athletic & well educated? neither has ever chosen to play or watch soccer. I might add, I have never denied them access to playing any sport they chose over the years.

I never stated anything in my letter to USA Today regarding the low scoring of soccer as you stated in your article. I couldn't care less if it's low scoring, as long as some excitement ensues. I stand by the "tedious & boring" remark. Although you may not like it, "tedious & boring" is the recipe for bad TV ratings and the reason we have the media constantly attacking the American public because we don't embrace soccer like the "rest of the world."

Why is it that you require us, the United States, to think and act like "the rest of the world"? This country was founded based on ideals no other country in the world has? independence and free thinking. Yet you and the media in general, say we must act and feel the way Europeans act and feel. Hogwash!

Frankly, we shouldn't care what everybody thinks of America? we know the greatness of this country and we display it constantly by helping people all around the world. Having said that, when I travel, the last thing I want is to have and see the same things I enjoy here at home. The whole reason to travel is to explore new and different things and cultures.

Now for the real meat and potatoes of my beef (no pun intended) with your article. Paragraph 3 states that I "slam" people that like soccer. Other than my statement that I believe the skill level to play soccer is not on par with other sports, I really don't care if people like soccer or not. If they do, more power to 'em. If you would have re read my letter, you might have absorbed my whole point for the letter which was? I am sick of people like you making Americans feel guilty if they don't go wild about soccer. This happens in all the major media outlets every time "World Cup" comes around. Maybe, some year, somebody could write an article entitled "World Cup? Just Leave Me Alone!" I don't hear any media uproar because American football, or American baseball, is not at the same level of acceptance in Europe as soccer is. That's fine that they choose soccer over those sports? I don't have to lay a guilt trip on them because of it.

Paragraph 4 intimates that I said soccer and its fans are "stupid." Excuse me, but where exactly in my letter did I state that? Nowhere. Thank you. You stated that people around the world embrace many American icons, again hinting that we don't reciprocate. Let's see. Toyota, Honda, Kia, French wines, Chinese take out, Fish 'n Chips, Airbus, etc. Yes, very narrow minded if you ask me. Your premise for this article is exactly what I was railing against?

QUIT MAKING PEOPLE FEEL GUILTY if they don't embrace soccer the way you would like us to!

Your last paragraph stated that "an informed citizenry is a much better one." I couldn't agree more on that one. As a matter of fact, I believe today's citizenry is one of the most informed in history. Yet we still hear about how we don't "get it" when it comes to soccer! Have you ever dared to think that we have actually informed ourselves and come to the conclusion that soccer is "tedious and boring"? I long for the day when the media realizes "World Cup" will never be as popular as the Super Bowl or World Series and states such. Only then will we be free of the media induced guilt trip that my whole letter was in reference to.

One last comment on your article is the use of the word "myth." I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to say throughout when using this word. In your first paragraph you stated that my remarks perpetuate a myth of the "ugly American." How is it my thinking for myself and coming to a conclusion, which is widely held, that we are constantly barraged by guilt trips in the media for not liking soccer perpetuates the "ugly American" myth? Later on you state "Now, back to the myth. Americans in the past have a reputation to criticize things they do not understand or that they can't do." Aside from the fact that this should read "reputation of criticizing," I gather from the rest of your article that you certainly do believe that this reputation is deserved.

That is exactly what you stated in your second paragraph that you have first hand experience with. How is it that this is a "myth" then?

I'm sorry I couldn't have responded to your article sooner but seeing as my daughter did find it and didn't particularly like it, I wanted to give you "my side."

Sincerely,

Peter Gatchell

Mason, Ohio Soccer Fan Not?