Man charged with robbing downtown bank 20 years after he robbed two other banks

Boston Police report arresting Coleman Nee, 40, of South Boston on charges he held up the TD Bank branch at 1 Union St., across from Faneuil Hall, shortly after 4 p.m. on Monday.

Police say Nee threatened to shoot a teller as part of his robbery. They add that Transit Police officer found Nee not long after in Downtown Crossing.

While no weapon was located, officers were able to recover the stolen cash from the suspect who was then placed in custody.

Nee was charged with armed bank robbery.

Nee pleaded guilty in federal court in 2002 to two bank robberies in 2001 and was ordered to repay the total of $900 he made off with in the two robberies. The judge, Douglas Woodlock, sentenced him to almost five years in federal prison and three years of probation, along with enrolling in drug-treatment programs because of his substance abuse.

After completing his sentence, Nee had to return to court several times for probation violations related to his failure to complete his drug-treatment programs or, in one case, even show up for one. That earned him a total of almost two more years in federal prison.

Over the years, Nee would write Woodlock polite letters asking for changes in his sentencing or prison conditions. In the last letter on file in the court records, in 2009, Nee asked to be assigned to the federal prison hospital at Devens following his most recent probation-violation sentencing, rather than be sent back to a prison in New York.

"You've always been fair to me and seem to actually have my best intentions at heart," Nee wrote.

Nee was finally released from federal custody in May, 2010.

Innocent, etc.