Gambling Blamed In Bank Rob Case
Lehigh Students Shocked At Arrest Of Sophomore Class President
Source: CBS News, December 14, 2005
The sophomore class president at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania — accused of robbing a bank — may have been trying to feed an intense gambling habit.
His lawyer says 19-year-old Greg Hogan had lost about $5,000 playing online poker. He says Hogan had been playing over the Internet for months to blow off steam, and that the hobby quickly became an addiction.
Hogan is the son of a Baptist minister. Authorities say he handed a note to a teller at a Wachovia Bank branch in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Friday, saying he had a gun and wanted money. They say he got away with $2,871.
He was picked up at his frat house later Friday and charged with robbery.
His lawyer says Hogan is “one of the nicest kids” he’s ever met. He says, “His gambling addiction led him to make a terrible, terrible mistake.”
As Lehigh University students prepared for final exams this week, they found themselves grappling with the news that the sophomore class president had been arrested for allegedly robbing a bank.
“I didn’t believe it when I first heard it,” Kathryn Susman, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hereford, Maryland, said Monday.
Hogan, the son of a Baptist minister, was picked up at his social fraternity house later that evening and charged with robbery, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.
One of his frat brothers, Patrick Thornton, described Hogan as “very energetic,” the sort of student who would cheer on the college football team wearing body paint.
“It’s by far the most interesting story we’ve ever encountered here,” added Thornton, editor of The Brown and White, the student newspaper.
The university’s student Senate president, Kip Wallen, drove Hogan to the bank, but had no idea that Hogan allegedly intended to rob it, said Wallen’s lawyer, Karl Longenbach. Wallen has not been charged.
“I believe once all the facts are reviewed and uncovered, the conclusion will be reached that he (Wallen) had in fact nothing to do with the crimes with which the other individual is charged,” Longenbach said.
Police told The Morning Call of Allentown that Hogan admitted robbing the bank. He was released Saturday after posting $100,000 bond, a prison spokesman said. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 31.
Hogan graduated in 2004 from the University School, an upscale private school in suburban Cleveland. His father, the Rev. Gregory J. Hogan, is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Barberton in Barberton, Ohio, and has served as a city councilman in Seven Hills, Ohio.
Hogan is also a cellist in the university’s orchestra.
“You have to think of how much he had going for him, class president, studying at Lehigh,” said Steve A. Juisti, 19, a sophomore civil engineering student from Upper Darby. “You have to question his reasoning, obviously. The big question is why.”
When a student is charged with a crime, the university’s Office of Student Conduct, a disciplinary committee of teachers, staff and students, decides what action to take regarding the student’s status at the school, said Dina Silver, a school spokeswoman. Sanctions can range from a warning to expulsion.