After Man Charged In 3rd Hoboken Bank Robbery, Public Safety Chief Questions Bail Reform

HOBOKEN, NJ — How was a man charged with trying to rob two banks in Hoboken in 2021 able to allegedly rob a Hoboken bank again last week?

That's what some area residents are asking, including Hoboken's current public safety director and former police chief, Ken Ferrante.

This past Sunday, the Hoboken police charged Everton Gunter, 31, with robbery.

They said that last Wednesday afternoon, Gunter entered the Bank of America at Second and Hudson streets and made off with $50,000, which is still missing.

In September 2021, Gunter allegedly handed a teller at that same bank a note and escaped with $18,000. Police found him three blocks away at the Hoboken train station, with a bulge in his pants, they said.

And two months earlier, in July 2021, he had showed a note to tellers at a nearby TD Bank. It's unclear if he left with any money in that incident, but he was charged.

But all three incidents diverted police from other tasks.

“I am thankful no one was injured in this incident, and appreciate the immediate police response and work by the investigators involved," said Hoboken Public Safety Director Ken Ferrante, who's also the town's former police chief, when asked about the matter Tuesday. "It was shocking to learn that this was a three-time offender."

Ferrante said he wasn't sure when Gunter was released. But he criticized New Jersey's current policies on bail reform.

Then-Gov. Chris Christie signed bail reform measures into law in 2014 and 2017. The reforms were meant to keep people accused of violent crimes from paying bail to get out of jail, and to allow those accused of non-violent crimes to be released without having to sit in jail.

The intent was to eliminate cash bail or bond for crimes, the theory being that it only kept impoverished people locked up regardless of guilt. There were exceptions for those accused of serious crimes like homicides and sex assaults.

"Today, the New Jersey State Assembly passed a legislative package to reform New Jersey’s broken bail system," wrote the ACLU in 2014. "On any given day in New Jersey, more than 10,000 people sit in jail not because they are dangerous, but because they cannot afford bail. In fact, the majority of people held in jail are not charged with violent crimes, sex crimes or weapons offenses."

They added, "Thousands of people are held because they cannot come up with $5,000. At the same time, more dangerous persons with large financial resources can more easily make bail and be free pending trial."

But some have argued that people are being released after non-violent — yet dangerous — offenses such as car thefts, only to be free to do the same again. READ MORE: Bring Back Bail For Car Thieves, Say NJ Republican Lawmakers

Ferrante said, "From my graduate studies to my tenure as chief, I understood and supported the concept of bail reform. However, I was vocal with the State Chief’s Association and verbalized to the Attorney General’s Office at that time, that some classifications of crimes were assessed too low in the area of threat assessments and classifications of crimes as non-violent."

He added, "Those were burglary, weapon possession, and we see here, robbery without injury. There needs to be unified collaboration of the executive and legislative branches of government to properly assess the potential for violence in those crimes.”

Gunter was not said to have displayed a weapon in the alleged robberies.

"Mr. Gunter was arrested and processed on Sunday Oct. 9, 2022 without any of the stolen proceeds," police said Tuesday. "No weapons were produced during the commission of this robbery."

When asked where the money is, police said Tuesday that they still don't know.

Gunter was brought to the Hudson County Correctional Facility.

Read more:

• October 2022: $50K Bank Heist In Hoboken: Man Charged For 3rd Time
• September 2022: Man Charged In 2nd Hoboken Bank Robbery In 2 Months
• July 2021: NYC Man Tries To Rob Hoboken Bank Using Note, Police Say