A Concord woman demanded $20,000 in a robbery note to a bank teller Wednesday morning and indicated she did not want to hurt anyone, according to a police affidavit.
The teller at Citizens Bank told Sarah Lynn Hodge, 57, that she did not have $20,000 but would empty her top and bottom drawers and provide the cash inside, Concord police Detective Bryan Croft wrote. In response, Hodge “kept putting her hand toward her pocket” while ordering the teller to “hurry,” the affidavit says.
Hodge was not armed; but the teller told police she was terrified Hodge was going to pull out a gun.
Concord police ultimately apprehended Hodge on Thursday morning, more than 24 hours after the robbery downtown. The note police allege she displayed to the teller was recovered during the execution of a search warrant at Hodge’s residence Wednesday night.
Assistant Merrimack County Attorney Ashlie Hooper told a Merrimack County Superior Court judge Friday afternoon that Hodge has three prior convictions for armed robbery in Massachusetts and a lengthy criminal record in New Hampshire that includes convictions for theft, drug possession and burglary.
“The state feels she is a danger to the community,” Hooper said, while asking Judge John Kissinger Jr. to detain Hodge.
Hodge waived her arraignment Friday on one felony count of unarmed robbery but contested the prosecution’s request to detain her pending trial, especially when no state witness was available to testify. One thing absent from the detailed affidavit is mention of Hodge’s full cooperation with police as recently as Friday morning, defense attorneys argued. She had agreed to accompany detectives to a wooded area near Concord Hospital’s campus where she allegedly buried the stolen cash.
Her attorneys asked Kissinger to set personal recognizance bail with required monitoring through the county’s pretrial services program. They noted that Hodge has a wide range of serious medical issues and has methadone injections daily at the Manchester clinic for the pain.
Kissinger denied the defense’s request out of concern for the danger she poses to the community, given the unique facts of the current case and her extensive criminal history in two states. However, he did agree to schedule an evidentiary hearing for next week, at which time attorneys can revisit bail arguments following a Concord officer’s testimony about the case.
Following the robbery, police said they reviewed video surveillance footage and received multiple tips from witnesses that led them to Hodge. When police knocked on her apartment door later that afternoon, they observed her wearing the same blue jeans, tan work boots and blue headphones also worn by the robbery suspect, the affidavit says.
After her initial interaction with police, Hodge called her sister for a ride out of town, saying she had to get away.