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Banks, who turns 30 later this month, has been arrested, jailed and bailed no fewer than a dozen times the past year, records show.
He’s ducked police at times before being caught and brought to court and violated restraining orders while outstanding charges continue to pile up.
Sean Banks (MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD)
Banks had been free on $26,500 bail for an alleged June assault on police when Englewood police arrested him last night on charges of burglary and violating a court order.
The bail this time: $25,000.
Officers were dispatched at 10:30 p.m. to a disturbance report at the home of a woman with whom Banks has two daughters, police said.
Family members said Banks tried to break down the front door while demanding to see her. Another family member confronted him and Banks left, they said.
Police, aware of a restraining order barring Banks from the woman and her family, found and arrested him, Detective Capt. Timothy Torell said.
This past October, Banks was named in an indictment charging him and nine other people with using an Englewood flophouse as a gambling den and marijuana stash house.
Banks agreed to the guilty plea last month in return for a reduction in six counts against him following a Jan. 15, 2013 incident in which prosecutors said he assaulted his girlfriend with a broomstick and belt, then restrained her from leaving.
PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter (MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF)
The plea was marked by late appearances, no appearances, adjournments and bench warrants for Banks, who was arrested several other times by police in Bergen and Sussex counties while it was pending.
Superior Court Judge James J. Guida approved the deal, under which Banks got three years of probation and counseling through Alternatives to Domestic Violence, after he insisted that he’s trying to turn his life around.
In exchange, the onetime Bergen Catholic star pleaded guilty to fourth-degree aggravated assault, recklessly causing bodily injury with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest — for running away and jumping a fence while police were chasing him.
Banks is still facing charges out of Englewood for burglarizing the same woman’s home and then slashing her car tires when she told him to leave.
Knowing that he was wanted, Banks laid low, city police said at the time. They tracked him down soon after, during which they said he got into a scuffle with them.
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ALSO SEE: The Sean Banks file (RELATED STORIES)
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Several other police agencies obtained detainers on Banks for failing to show up for court on charges in their towns, as well.
Mugshots from last night (Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD)
More than three years ago, Banks was grabbed along with other members of an offshoot of the infamous James Bond Gang burglary ring following a high-speed police chase and crash after break-ins at homes in Sparta and Jefferson Township.
The New Orleans Hornets signed the 6-foot-8-inch Banks as an undrafted rookie free agent in the summer of 2005 and assigned him to the team’s developmental affiliate in Tulsa after he averaged four points a game in pre-season.
After the Hornets waived him, Banks played in Puerto Rico and with other U.S. developmental teams. He became a father and had hopes of playing for Great Britain’s national team. His last hurrah was scoring 14 points in a D-League All-Star game seven years ago.
The naturally gifted Banks wasn’t just any player coming out of Bergen County. At Memphis University, he was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year a decade ago, scoring 17.4 points per game and grabbing 6.5 rebounds for a major college program.
But things went sour after he couldn’t meet the academic requirements and left school.
Banks’s criminal history began with charges of drunk driving, speeding and driving without license before he was arrested in the gang-related marking of a girl with a cigarette.
Things got worse fast.
Banks was in an SUV that took off after being stopped for speeding in August 2011 a short time after a pair of nearby burglaries. The vehicle flipped during the chase, trapping him and three other men with him inside. Inside the SUV, police said, they recovered more than $20,000 worth of stolen goods.
PHOTOS, TOP: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
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