Mark Edward Wetsch
Mark Edward Wetsch

The judge wanted to make sure the defendant knew that representing himself -- particularly on a charge of armed bank robbery -- may not be smart.

Mark Wetsch, accused in the "Man in Black" string of bank robberies across the state, told U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson he had no formal training in the law, but he'd read up on it.

"Are you familiar with the Federal Rules of Evidence?" she asked. (The current paperback edition runs 608 pages.)

"I have read them extensively," Wetsch replied, going on to say he felt he had a "good understanding" of them.

"There's a reason people go to law school," Nelson told him. "Much like I wouldn't suggest that you perform heart surgery, I wouldn't suggest that you represent yourself."

Wetsch said he understood the risks. So when his trial starts in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on Monday, April 22, he'll be representing himself. He'll have "standby counsel," a lawyer who can provide help if he needs it.

But the trial itself represents a small victory of sorts for Wetsch, 50, a former nursing home executive who has done time for mail fraud. He's charged with 13 counts of armed bank robbery committed by a dark-clad man -- hence the FBI nickname "Man in Black" -- but the upcoming trial will involve only a single count.

The other 12 counts will be divided between two other trials.

Wetsch dismissed his appointed public defender because she rebuffed his demand to request a separate trial on each of the 13 counts.


He filed a motion to do so on his own -- "pro se," in legal parlance -- and Nelson said that while he couldn't have 13 trials, there were sound legal reasons to divide the counts into three trials.

Since filing his first pro se motion last September, Wetsch has filed (as of Thursday's hearing before Nelson) 73 motions and 29 letters, responses, applications or requests.

They have dealt with everything from evidentiary issues to his demands for bank robbery data from Illinois to complaints that prosecutors placed "provocateurs" in the Sherburne County Jail to concoct "fictitious testimony" against him.

He also has filed motions complaining about his jail food; he says that he is an "ardent" Muslim and that Sherburne County hasn't been feeding him a diet that conforms to halal standards.

Wetsch also has filed motions informing the judge that he believes Islam forbids him from standing when the judge or jury enter or leave the courtroom. (He stood for Nelson when she entered and left the courtroom Thursday.)

He has filed a civil suit against the U.S. Justice Department over the diet issue. He has sued the U.S. attorney's office and the federal public defender's office for telling a judge a year ago that a plea bargain had been reached in his case.

Wetsch has even sued Nelson, claiming she has violated his rights by, among other things, keeping him in jail.

The trial that begins Monday involves the Jan. 3, 2012, robbery of Rolling Hills Bank & Trust in Brewster, 171 miles southwest of St. Paul. The bandit got $1,880, and Wetsch was arrested as he drove through St. Peter about 90 minutes after the robbery.

Prosecutors plan to show jurors a video of an interview investigators conducted with Wetsch after his arrest. After Thursday's hearing, a technician showed Wetsch how to operate the technology that'll be used to show the video at trial and they projected a snippet of the video on a large screen.

When an investigator asked Wetsch, "Tell me about Brewster," the Minneapolis man replied that earlier that day, he "pulled out a map" and "looked for a town with a bank."

In court filings and letters to the Pioneer Press, Wetsch admits he robbed the bank. He disputes the armed bank robbery charge, though, claiming he used a toy gun and is guilty only of robbery by intimidation.

Prosecutors point out that the federal statute defining armed bank robbery refers to the use of a "dangerous weapon." Federal courts have held that toy guns can be defined as dangerous because they escalate the potential for violence and create "fear and apprehension in the victims."

The hearing before Nelson got off to an unusual start when Wetsch said he was ready to enter a "conditional" plea: He would plead guilty, but only if the court granted him a "temporary release" to a halfway house.

"OK, well, that's a nonstarter," Nelson told him abruptly. Wetsch said he'd go to trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Deidre Aanstad told the judge that the government would call as many as nine witnesses in its case.

Wetsch said that he wouldn't be calling witnesses but that he might testify.

The first of the other 12 robberies he's charged with was March 9, 2011, in Cologne, Minn.; the $11,400 taken in the heist would stand as the "Man in Black's" largest score. He allegedly robbed two banks in April and one in May.

But in May 2011, a federal judge determined Wetsch had violated terms of his supervised release on an earlier mail-fraud conviction. In that case, he had admitted he defrauded the nursing home company he worked for of $1.3 million.

He had already served time in prison, and a judge decided to send him back for four months.

The day before Wetsch surrendered himself to prison in June 2011, he allegedly robbed a bank in Gaylord.

He got out Oct. 12. Prosecutors said he resumed robbing in November, holding up three banks that month and four banks in December before he was arrested in St. Peter.

Nelson has decided the five robberies between March and June 2011 will be consolidated into a single trial, while the seven robberies in November and December of that year will be the subject of another trial.

Nelson, adopting recommendations of a magistrate judge, ruled that Wetsch's admission to the Brewster robbery could prejudice him in the eyes of jurors considering the other counts, so it should be the subject of a separate trial.

Nelson ruled the other 12 counts should be split between two trials: one for the five holdups he allegedly committed before he was sent back to prison, and another trial for the seven robberies committed after his release from prison but before his arrest.

She said mingling evidence from all the robberies might confuse jurors and unduly prejudice Wetsch's case.

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.