Four people have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the 2022 robbery of an ATM at the Batesville headquarters of Citizens Bank on St. Louis Street.
According to a release from the Batesville Police Department (BPD), federal indictments against Lavert Hart, 29, Joshua Jerome Dorsey, 36, Edmond Celeste Dorsey, 32, and Brianna Ford, 29, all of the Houston, Tex., area, were all handed down earlier this year based on BPD evidence presented in February 2023.
The indictments included bank robbery, interstate transport of stolen property, and conspiracy to commit bank robbery. Three suspects in the case have been apprehended and have appeared in federal court for their first appearances. Edmond C. Dorsey is still on the lam.
Around 1:30 p.m. on April 15, 2022, while the ATM was being serviced by an ATM service technician and bank employees, two masked individuals exited the passenger side of a nearby vehicle, ran up to the ATM, and took cassettes that contained approximately $100,000 in U.S. currency (cash). All the time, the driver remained in the vehicle.
When the suspects had the cash cassettes, they returned to the vehicle and fled the scene. A short time later, the vehicle was spotted, and a pursuit began. During the pursuit, the vehicle was able to evade officers. (Click here for an April 19, 2022, article on the robbery from White River Now.)
Batesville Police Chief Alan Cockrill said in the days and weeks immediately following the incident, BPD investigators were able to collect numerous pieces of evidence and video footage related to the robbery. He said three suspects from the Houston area were developed during the investigation.
Cockrill said it was discovered one of the suspects was incarcerated in Haskell, Tex., for an incident similar to the one in Batesville. Two BPD investigators, Kyle Williford and Rick Davis, went to Haskell, Tex., to interview the suspect. They obtained evidence collected by the San Marcos Police Department and the interview. Evidence also implicated a fourth suspect from Houston in a conspiracy to commit the ATM robbery in Batesville.
The chief said evidence in the case came from several sources, including video surveillance footage, vehicle rental records, cellular records, jail records, social media records, and witness statements — all used to build a case against the suspects.
Chief Cockrill said the United States Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Other agencies who assisted in this investigation included the Independence County Sheriff’s Department, San Marcos, Texas, Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the chief.
Read the full news release below.
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