47°
Banks was a passenger in a car with Florida license plates that was pulled over for a traffic violation by Haworth Police Sgt. Gianluca Ragone last Friday.
Wanted by Englewood police for yet another domestic violence assault, he gave Ragone a different name, Detective Sgt. Justin Fox said.
Trouble was: Ragone knew the onetime Bergen Catholic star from his days on the hardwood, which included some pre-season games in the NBA.
Banks, who has a history of domestic violence, burglary and drug offenses, also had outstanding warrants out of East Rutherford, Englewood Cliffs and Paramus when the car was stopped, records show.
It was nothing new.
Over the past decade and a half, Banks has been arrested and booked into the Bergen County Jail nearly two dozen times.
Now and then, he's ducked police before being caught. Then he's released while outstanding charges and restraining order violations continue to pile up.
Five years ago, Banks was charged with assaulting police.
Four months later, he was named in an indictment charging him and nine other people with using an Englewood flophouse as a gambling den and marijuana stash house.
Two months after that, Banks pleaded guilty to a Jan. 15, 2013 incident in which prosecutors said he assaulted his ex-girlfriend with a broomstick and belt, then restrained her from leaving.
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 the case was pending.
After a judge sentenced him to probation and domestic violence counseling, police said, Banks tried to break down his ex-girlfriend’s door despite yet another order of protection.
Englewood police said he later burglarized her home and slashed her tires.
The then-New Orleans Hornets signed 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, 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 a 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 burglaries at homes in Sparta and Jefferson Township in Sussex County.
The vehicle flipped during the high-speed chase, trapping Banks and members of an offshoot of the infamous James Bond Gang burglary ring. Police recovered more than $20,000 worth of stolen goods from inside the SUV.
Banks has been arrested no fewer than a dozen times since then, often for assaults, threats, resisting arrest, obstruction and violating court restraining orders, records show.
Despite New Jersey's bail reform law, a judge ordered that Banks not be released from the Bergen County Jail. He remained there Friday, pending further court action, a week after his arrest in Haworth.
Besides a warrant for skipping court in Hackensack, he's charged with domestic violence, aggravated assault, harassment and child endangerment out of Englewood.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Northern Valley and receive free news updates.
