'Robin Hood' claims he shared loot

A police detective said a man accused of taking nearly a half-million dollars in a string of bank holdups claimed he gave out most of the money on Los Angeles' Skid Row.

Thirty-two-year-old Julio Cesar Rodriguez of Arleta was charged earlier this month with 14 counts of robbery and attempted robbery. He also faces separate drug and weapons charges. He appeared in Superior Court Tuesday but had his arraignment postponed.

A call to Rodriguez's attorney, Howard R. Levine, was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Rodriguez was arrested this month by narcotics investigators. Detectives looking into the bank robberies said they linked him to a bank job by DNA evidence obtained from a bandanna that a crook wore over his face and left at the scene of a holdup in Van Nuys.

Police Detective Ursula Guillory said she had been investigating for months. Following Rodriguez's arrest, she asked him what he did with the loot.

"He said, 'I spent a little on myself, then I went down to Skid Row and handed it out,'" Guillory said.

"He was very cooperative and said he wanted to be responsible," Guillory said. "He said, 'I don't want to waste your time, detective.'"

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Information from: (Los Angeles) Daily News, http://www.dailynews.com