An elderly Queens man walked free from jail and won’t face criminal charges for tagging along with his bank-robbing son during an attempted heist, authorities said yesterday.
There’s no evidence that Anthony Scimone Sr., 89, an ailing grandfather from Jackson Heights, had any role in his 47-year-old son’s stickup of the Ridgewood Savings Bank in Flushing, according to a spokesman for Queens DA Richard Brown.
Even if there were any evidence against the elder Scimone, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, prosecutors believe he would be declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, the spokesman said.
Cops busted father and son moments after Anthony Scimone Jr. allegedly knocked off the Parsons Boulevard bank. With his father in the getaway car’s passenger seat, the younger Scimone tried to flee, but drove their 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass into an oncoming NYPD cruiser.
Cops hauled the elder Scimone to jail with his son before releasing him early yesterday.
Family members said he is not able to care for himself.
While they were happy the octogenarian is in the clear, they’re steamed at the younger Scimone for putting his dad in harm’s way.
Scimone Jr. was ordered held on $80,000 bail last night, charged in four separate robberies.
Marie Cipriano, daughter of Anthony Sr. and sister of the suspect, said, “I’m upset because I can’t believe that he’d [Anthony Jr.] do something like this. I’m in total shock.”