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Over the past 18 months, Banks has been jailed — and freed — no fewer than a half-dozen times.
That includes a June 22 warrant arrest after police found him at a local flophouse being used as a gambling den, recording studio and marijuana stashhouse. No sooner was Banks taken to the Bergen County Jail that night than he posted $15,000 bail and was released.
A little more than two weeks before, Banks was arrested on a fugitive warrant after he ducked police for nearly three months. He was supposed to be sentenced to probation in March after pleading guilty to assaulting and restraining his girlfriend but never showed up for court.
At around 3:30 a.m. yesterday, the woman filed a domestic violence assault complaint that led to Banks’ arrest at his 4th Ward home.
“While being booked at headquarters, Banks became violent and began injuring himself,” Detective Capt. Timothy Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “As the arresting officers were attempting to restrain him, Banks assaulted a patrol sergeant, injuring his arm.”
Sean Banks (MUGSHOT: Courtesy Englewood PD)
The sergeant was expected to return to work after being treated. Banks, too, was briefly hospitalized and returned to the lockup.
As of this morning, he remained held on $26,500 in the county jail, charged with domestic violence assault and aggravated assault on a police officer.
The previous domestic assault case against Banks has been marked by several delays while more serious charges against him are dealt with in Bergen and Sussex counties — all of which could send him to prison for several years.
Banks, 29, agreed to the guilty plea domestic violence plea in November in return for a reduction in six counts against him following an incident in which prosecutors said he assaulted his girlfriend with a broomstick and belt, then restrained her from leaving.
In exchange for probation, 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 a woman’s home and then slashing her car tires when she told him to leave.
Several other police agencies have obtained detainers on Banks for failing to show up for court on charges in their towns, as well.
More than two years ago, he 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.
Charges in other crimes have been pending elsewhere, as well, including in Wayne.
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 and the gang-related marking of a girl with a cigarette.
It 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.
Yesterday’s arrest comes 10 days after Banks was chased and collared — again by Englewood police — leading to charges against him and 10 others:
Officers Lester Martin and Michael McCue were on patrol when they spotted Banks sitting on the front stoop of 53 Mattlage Place with 29-year-old Anthony Obuobisa and 28-year-old David Sarakin, both Englewood residents.
Aware of warrants on Banks for ducking court, they approached the trio, who turned and ran into the house, Torell said.
Additional officers responded and helped secure the perimeter of the home.
From inside they could smell burning marijuana, the captain said.
Spotting several people in the home, city officers requested backup from Englewood Cliffs, Teaneck, Tenafly, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and the Bergen County Police Department.
Someone eventually opened the door and officers learned that a bank had recently foreclosed on the home, Torell said.
Everyone was ordered out and arrested — including Banks, Obuobisa and Sarakin. The house was then sealed off as detectives applied for a search warrant.
Soon after, Torell said, police caught 29-year-old Shawon Goodall of Teaneck trying to sneak in a rear window.
She’d been asked to do so “to search for and remove any contraband not recovered by police,” he said.
Eventually searching the home, detectives found “insect infestations and rotting garbage throughout the entire house,” Torell said. “There was no running water and it appeared that people had been using the commodes for months without the ability to flush.”
Shawon Goodall (MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD)
Found in the home was a gambling operation, complete with a large craps table and poker tables, as well as a basement recording studio where “a significant amount of marijuana was found secreted under some clothing, as well as a digital scale, suspected cocaine, narcotics packaging materials, prescription drug materials, drug usage paraphernalia and hundreds of full and empty liquor bottles,” Torell said.
The city’s Code Enforcement Unit sealed the residence as a result of the infestation, human waste, raw sewage and “structural issues,” the captain said.
A relative of the former owner, 36-year-old Candace Rector, “knew what was going on in there and didn’t make an effort to stop it,” Torell said. She was charged with maintaning a nuisance.
Those charged:
Banks — trespassing, resisting arrest, warrants.
Goodall (left) – burglary, obstruction. She later posted $10,000 bail and was released from the Bergen County Jail
Rector – disorderly complaint. She was issued a summons to appear in court and was released without bail.
Obuobisa – trespassing, obstruction. He was free on $57,500 bail.
Sarakin – trespassing, obstruction. He was released on an appearance summons.
Daryl Lewis – 26, of Englewood; trespassing, hindering. He was being held on a combined bail of nearly $95,000 for a variety of offenses in other towns, including $21,634 in arrears.
Released on summonses charging them with trespassing were:
Michael Lockett, 21, and Daivon Hooks, 19, of Englewood;
Charles Williams, 25, Garfield;
Sharief Brown, 22, Hackensack;
Jamal Sermon, 30, Teaneck.
PHOTO, TOP: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter (MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF)
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