‘Nasty Boys’ Bank Robber Gets 73 Years : Courts: The judge gives the 19-year-old the longest sentence allowed for helping to pioneer particularly violent takeover heists. That type of robbery has skyrocketed, the FBI says.

A teen-age member of the infamous “Nasty Boys,” pioneers in a particularly sadistic form of bank robbery, was sentenced Monday to one of the longest prison terms ever handed down for that crime.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian sentenced Harold Joseph Walden II to more than 73 years in federal prison, effectively locking him up for the rest of his life. Walden, 19, delivered a stinging denunciation of the American justice system before sentence was imposed, but sat quietly with his hands crossed in his lap as the judge gave him the longest sentence called for under the law.

“You have a brilliant mind,” Tevrizian told Walden. “Unfortunately, you didn’t put your mind to the right effort.”

Walden’s sentence was imposed on the day FBI officials released the latest statistics on bank robberies in Southern California. The numbers revealed that “takeover robberies”--the kind practiced by the Nasty Boys--have skyrocketed during the past year. Takeover robberies differ from other kinds in that bandits terrorize customers and employees, sometimes threatening to kill them and firing guns inside the bank, instead of grabbing money and fleeing as inconspicuously as possible.

According to the latest statistics, the number of takeover robberies in Southern California jumped from 140 in 1991 to 448 last year. Overall, bank robberies also set a new record, topping 2,500 for the first time in this region, which accounted for more than one of four bank robberies nationwide.

“What we’re seeing in these takeover robberies is a lot of gratuitous violence,” said FBI Agent Charlie J. Parsons, agent in charge of the bureau’s Los Angeles field division. “You have something like a mugging going on inside these banks.”

Faced with what Parsons called a “criminal problem of epidemic proportions,” the California Bankers Assn. and the FBI announced a new, 24-hour national hot line where callers can give information about bank robberies anonymously and still qualify for rewards. The number, which is in service, is 1-800-78-CRIME.

Takeover robberies emerged as a major problem in late 1991. FBI agents attribute their rapid growth to gang involvement. Among the first to practice the technique were the Nasty Boys, and the long sentence given to Walden was cheered by law enforcement officials.

“While they were at large, they were the worst of the worst in Los Angeles, which is the bank robbery capital of the world,” FBI Special Agent William J. Rehder said in a declaration filed with the court. “The Nasty Boys consistently used levels of violence far exceeding anything necessary to get the money.”

Prosecutors agreed, and they accused Walden and accomplice Clarence Carlin Sanders of subjecting their victims to cruelty far beyond that usually associated with bank robberies. Sentencing for Walden is pending.

“For ordinary working people, Sanders and Walden were violent nightmares come to life,” Assistant U.S. Atty. John Shepard Wiley Jr. wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Starting in September, 1991, the Nasty Boys went on a robbery spree that included 27 banks, Rehder said. Walden and Sanders were only charged with five robberies, those that prosecutors said they committed together. The jury did not reach verdicts on one robbery, but both men were convicted in connection with the other four.

During the months that the Nasty Boys were at large, they terrorized dozens of customers and employees with their violent raids on Southern California banks. They robbed customers, herded employees into bank vaults and threatened to execute people. In some cases, the robbers held guns to victims’ heads, sometimes firing the weapons next to their ears--all, authorities said, for fun.

“Walden is obviously dangerous,” Wiley said. “His crimes are serial savagery. . . . His violence went well beyond what was necessary for the cash. He did it because he seemed to enjoy it.”

In at least one case, officials said Walden fondled a female bank employee while holding a gun to her head. That employee was then threatened with death if she testified. More than two years after the holdup, she submitted a statement saying that she remains so shaken that she still is unable to work.

Walden spoke to the court for about 10 minutes Monday, but neither denied his involvement in the crimes nor expressed any remorse for the victims.

Instead, he attacked the U.S. government and the “white supremacy majority” that he said controls it. He referred to the United States as the “land of the oppressor and the home of the slave” and called the sentence being imposed on him “scandalous” and “unreasonable.”

Wiley responded by saying that Walden’s crimes had nothing to do with his professed political beliefs. In fact, Wiley said, some of Walden’s victims were African-Americans. “Harold Walden did not engage in armed bank robbery to strike a blow for civil rights,” Wiley said. “He was an equal opportunity armed bank robber.”

Michael Garcia, the deputy public defender who represented Walden, asked Tevrizian to reject the prison sentence called for under the federal sentencing guidelines, as interpreted by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“That would be a message to Mr. Walden that there is faith in him to rehabilitate,” Garcia said.

Tevrizian disagreed, and imposed a sentence of 73 years and one month in prison. There is no parole in federal prison so Walden must serve at least 85%, or about 62 years, of his sentence before qualifying for early release.

Long sentences such as Walden’s should deter other prospective bank robbers, Parsons said.

A Dubious Distinction Takeover bank robberies--holdups in which the perpetrators terrorize customers and employees while robbing a bank--skyrocketed in 1992 as overall bank robberies broke all records in the Los Angeles region. Although takeovers still account for a relatively small percentage of bank robberies in the region, they are marked by the greatest violence and are given top priority by investigators.

Figures below are for the seven-county district overseen by the Los Angeles field division of the FBI. They include bank robberies in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

TAKEOVER ROBBERIES 1992: 448

1991: 140

VIOLENCE 1991 1992 Customers/employees 5 64 assaulted or robbed: Takeovers in which 4 43 shots were fired: Customers/employees shot: 3 6

ALL BANK ROBBERIES In the last five years, the overall number of bank robberies in the seven-county Los Angeles region has almost doubled. More than one quarter of all bank robberies in the nation occur here.

YEAR NUMBER OF ROBBERIES 1992 2,641 1991 2,355 1990 1,644 1989 1,440 1988 1,351

SOURCE: Los Angeles office of the FBI