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“I’m desperate. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Lyndhurst police said Donald Tuohy told the barmaid while pointing an illegal .25-caliber handgun at her during the April 20, 2012 robbery.
She gave him $138. He gave her a twenty back, police told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.
Tuohy pleaded “not guilty” today in Hackensack through his attorney, public defender Jaclyn Medina.
Medina (left) told Judge Edward A. Jerejian she intends to file a motion to keep jurors — if the case goes to trial — from hearing about Tuohy’s prior convictions in Bergen County for narcotics offenses in 1999 and 2000. He also has charges currently pending against him in two other counties.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Maria Rockfol declined to offer a plea bargain, citing charges against Tuohy for an attempted robbery – this one 11 days earlier in Rutherford.
Rockfol told Jerejian that she and the prosecutor handling that case intend to consolidate the charges and make a single offer.
Tuohy, 49, of Lyndhurst, is charged with one first degree count of armed robbery and two second degree counts of illegal weapons possession and use in the Lyndhurst holdup.
It was a Saturday night around 6:15 when, police said, he walked into The Locker Room on Stuyvesant Avenue.
After using the bathroom, he asked the 26-year-old barmaid for a tap beer, Lyndhurst Police Chief Jim O’Connor told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. She said they had only bottles, so he ordered a Budweiser, the chief said.
As she was getting it, O’Connor said, Tuohy pulled a handgun from his left jacket pocket — then began apologizing for robbing her.
Tuohy then took a twenty from the fistful of cash she’d just handed him and left it on the bar for her, the chief added.
Later that night, Detective Ronald Guirland and Detective Sgt. John Kerner reviewed surveillance video from the tavern and nearby businesses and canvassed the neighborhood. They quickly identified the car the robber was driving, which police said had distinctive damage.
They then arrested Tuohy at his home without incident. They also recovered the gun, which the indictment says he didn’t have a permit for.
Rutherford detectives soon became interested in Tuohy in connection with the April 9 attempted holdup of a Delta gas station on Park Avenue.
In that case, the attendant told police a man drove up in a four-door silver sedan — possibly a mid 90’s Toyota — then got out and asked for $20 worth of gas.
The attendant said the driver then asked whether he could break a hundred-dollar bill, and he said he did.
At that point, he said, the man demanded all of his cash. The attendant said he told him the money was in a safe, but then he “motioned to his pocket” and said he’d shoot him if didn’t comply.
He said the would-be robber fled empty-handed after he threatened to call police.
Rutherford Detective Kevin Scannell later found the gas cap to the driver’s car, Capt. Patrick Feliciano told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Tuohy remained held in the Bergen County Jail on $700,000 combined bail.
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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