Bank holdup story denied
His wife says that the serial robbery suspect never paid her rent, as he allegedly stated
The estranged wife of Michael Rosario Sr. said she had no idea her husband was the man now accused of being a serial bank robber -- especially since she never saw any of the money he allegedly stole.
"I got money from him once in a while, but he didn't pay my rent," said Monique Rosario.
Jim Maynard, Rosario's boss at Pacific Diversified Finishes Inc., said Rosario had told him he robbed banks because he was burdened by having to pay rents for three different homes, one for his wife and two young sons, another for his teenage son and one for him and his girlfriend.
Monique Rosario, 38, also disputes descriptions by Maynard and one of his co-workers that her husband is a nice, considerate guy who is not violent.
In May 2005, Monique Rosario told police her husband "threatened her with a knife and told her he was going to make her a blood sacrifice for his father Satan," according to court records. She had a temporary restraining order against her husband because she claimed he had threatened her at work and school.
Michael Rosario was arrested for terroristic threatening and abuse of a family member. He pleaded no contest to both charges and was sentenced in January to five years' probation for the threatening conviction and two years' probation for abuse. He also was charged with violating a protective order, found guilty and sentenced last November to two years' probation.
Rosario appeared in federal court yesterday on charges that he robbed three banks.
A federal criminal complaint accuses him of robbing Central Pacific Bank's Waipahu Branch on Dec. 22, Hickam Federal Credit Union in Kapolei on July 14 and CPB's Keeaumoku Branch on Sept. 22. He will remain in custody at the Federal Detention Center at least until Wednesday, when he is scheduled to return to court for a bail hearing.
Honolulu police arrested Rosario, 40, Wednesday on Sand Island Access Road on his way to pick up his last paycheck from his employer. At the time, police said they had positively identified Rosario as the suspect in 10 bank robberies over the past 12 months, including the three listed in the criminal complaint. And they were investigating him as the suspect in more robberies.
Police would not say whether Rosario had confessed to any of the crimes when they questioned him. But in addition to his statement to Maynard, Rosario told reporters following his arrest that he thought he would get away with the robberies "'cause I had good disguises."