Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3^rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

*News Release* Date: May 5, 2010

Two plead guilty in South River bank robbery

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan today announced that two men have pleaded guilty to charges arising from the robbery of $7,600 from a bank in South River last October.

Steven Spearnock (DOB 2/13/65) of East Brunswick pleaded guilty to a count of robbery, while Brian D. Niewinsky (DOB 10/10/61) of Sayreville pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit a theft and resisting arrest.

The two entered the pleas on May 3, 2010, following negotiations with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Kuberiet.

Under the plea agreement, Spearnock faces a 10-year prison term and must serve 85 percent of the sentence before he can be eligible for parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29, 2010, by Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.

Niewinsky will be sentenced to the time he has served in custody since his arrest and faces a probationary term of up to five years when he is sentenced by Judge Ferencz on June 30, 2010.

The two were arrested and charged following the robbery on October 14, 2009, at Provident Bank on Jackson Street in South River.

An investigation by members of the South River Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office determined that Spearnock entered the bank when it opened at 9 a.m. and handed a teller a note demanding money.

Spearnock took the cash, left the bank and joined Niewinsky, who was waiting across the street. A bank employee followed the two men and alerted police to their location as they walked to a taxi cab office on Obert Street in South River.

Police arrived and arrested the men, who struggled briefly. Police searched Spearnock and recovered $7,600 taken during the robbery.