Appeals court: Feds wrongly garnished Amherst bank robber's prison account

A habitual Northeast Ohio bank robber has won a challenge in a federal appeals court after he alleged that the U.S. government improperly took money out of his prison commissary account to pay restitution he owes to a Lorain County bank he robbed in 2016. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that Adam Carson was entitled to more due process than he received when federal authorities garnished the more than $4,000 in his prison commissary account to help pay back more than $5,500 he was ordered to repay Chemical Bank after robbing its Amherst branch. The appeals court returned the matter to U.S. District Court in Cleveland for further consideration, according to its ruling. Carson, 40, robbed four northern Ohio banks from Youngstown to Amherst between 2008 and 2016. In 2017, he was charged with bank robbery and witness tampering following a Chemical Bank robbery. Convicted by a jury, Carson was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $5,600 restitution by U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent. A three-judge panel made up of judges Chad Readler, Amul Thapar and Helene White ruled unanimously on Friday that when Nugent ordered authorities to take all but $300 from Carson's inmate trust account to cover Carson's court-ordered restitution, he didn't make the required legal findings or cite legal authority. Carson had been ordered by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to pay installments of 25 percent of his gross monthly income toward restitution to Chemical Bank following an appeal in 2019. While in prison, Carson's account received cash deposits from his family and his prison wages. There was $4,037.89 in the account when federal authorities asked the Bureau of Prisons to turn over all but $300 so it could be applied to Carson's restitution, Thapar wrote in the decision. The court did so "without giving Carson an opportunity to be heard" and also didn't cite the appropriate law, Thapar wrote. Federal prosecutors argued that "a large portion" of the money in Carson's account came from federal stimulus payments made during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the government "was entitled 'to get it back,'" Thapar wrote. This happened to Carson and thousands of inmates like him, the appeals court noted. While federal courts do have the authority to garnish inmate accounts, authorities had already agreed not to take more than 25 percent of his monthly wages and didn't ask to modify that plan, Thapar wrote. The government also didn't prove where his money came from — namely, whether it was prison wages or stimulus checks, or whether it was "substantial" enough to warrant garnishment" as required under federal law, Thapar wrote. Background An investigation by the Amherst Police Department and the FBI into the robbery at the Chemical Bank on Cooper Foster Park Road in Amherst on Nov. 21, 2016, led to the arrest of Carson and his then-girlfriend, Karin Deeb. According to federal court records, Carson wore a disguise into the bank and Deeb drove the getaway car. They used some of the $5,590 they got from the robbery to buy drugs and get a hotel room. After an argument, Deeb took the money and left. Carson was arrested the next day after stealing and crashing a car, and police found evidence from the robbery inside the car, according to federal court records. Two months after Carson's arrest, Deeb walked into a US Bank on Lorain Road in Cleveland on Jan. 30, 2017, handed a teller a note claiming claimed she had a bomb and had been kidnapped, and demanded $2,000. Deeb fled with the money, but was identified by the FBI and arrested, according to multiple media reports of the incident. Deeb agreed to testify against Carson in federal court. He was charged with witness tampering after he sent her a threatening letter from jail. All of Carson's appeals of his conviction and sentence have been denied. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied one in 2019, and he also unsuccessfully appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to federal court records. Nugent denied a third appeal in March this year. Carson is serving his 20-year prison sentence at a federal penitentiary in central Pennsylvania, according to federal court records. In 2012, Carson was charged with robbing two banks in Ashtabula County, the (Ashtabula) Star Beacon newspaper reported at the time. He pleaded guilty to two felony robbery charges in Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court in 2013 and was sentenced to 54 months in prison, according to Ashtabula County court records. Carson's multiple requests for early release from that sentence all were denied, according to Ashtabula County court records. He also served two years in prison in the late 2000s after being convicted of a 2008 bank robbery in Youngstown, according to media reports. Deeb pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting bank robbery and lying to a federal grand jury in connection with the Amherst robbery and was sentenced by Nugent to 32 months in prison and three years of supervised release in 2018. She also served time in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville after being convicted of felony robbery and theft in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Deeb appears to have since been released from prison. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.