Defendant Sentenced to 16 Years in State Prison for
Robbing Hudson Heritage Federal Credit Union
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Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler today announced that on January 10, 2017, Joshua De Jesus, 27, of Wappingers Falls, was sentenced to sixteen years in state prison, and five years post release supervision, in connection with the August 24, 2015, armed robbery of the Hudson Heritage Federal Credit Union in the City of Newburgh. Orange County Court Judge Robert H. Freehill also ordered De Jesus to pay approximately $225,000 in restitution. De Jesus had pleaded guilty to Robbery in the First Degree Pursuant before on January 10, 2017.

On the morning of August 24, 2015, De Jesus, along with another unidentified man, waited outside the Hudson Heritage Federal Credit Union on Corwin Court in the City of Newburgh, until the first two credit union employees arrived to open the building. De Jesus and his accomplice displayed a gun and a knife, which they exchanged between them at different times during the robbery. The men ordered the employees to let them in, and De Jesus made his way to the vault, where he took approximately $225,000 in cash. De Jesus and his accomplice then left the credit union, entered a waiting car driven by a third person, and drove off. After an extensive police investigation, De Jesus was apprehended by City of Newburgh and Town of Fishkill Police on December 17, 2015. The Town of Fishkill Police were investigating other bank robberies which occurred in elsewhere Dutchess County.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the City of Newburgh Police Department, the FBI, the Town of Fishkill Police Department, the Town of Hyde Park Police Department, the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department, the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, and the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office for their efforts in the investigation of the case and the apprehension of De Jesus. Under the terms of the plea agreement announced in court, De Jesus’ sentence in Orange County will run concurrently to any sentence he receives in connection with any Dutchess County robbery convictions.

“The community will be safer during the sixteen years that this defendant is in prison,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “The repeated threatening of innocent employees or customers at financial institutions cannot be tolerated and those who engage in such crimes deserve long state prison sentences.”

A criminal charge is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of the criminal law, and it is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the State of New York’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt