Former Hopkins hoops star to face charges in Wisconsin

Anthony DiLoreto waved extradition to face charges in a Wisconsin bank robbery. An accomplice, 16, is in custody.

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: August 21, 2008 - 7:23 AM

Former Hopkins High School basketball player Anthony DiLoreto was supposed to leave for college Sept. 11. Instead, he is bound today for a Wisconsin jail cell.

DiLoreto, 18, of Minnetonka, appeared in Hennepin County District Court on Wednesday, where he waived extradition rights and agreed to be returned to Wisconsin to face charges for his alleged role in a robbery Saturday of a Bremer Bank in Danbury.

According to Burnett County Attorney William Norine, DiLoreto faces charges of being a party to an armed robbery and being in possession of a short-barreled shotgun.

DiLoreto was to have driven the getaway car for a 16-year-old boy, who according to police was carrying a shotgun believed to belong to DiLoreto when he robbed the bank, authorities said.

According to a complaint filed Monday in Burnett County, DiLoreto and the 16-year-old, with whom he played basketball, planned the robbery Friday night. The plan was for the 16-year-old to rob the bank while DiLoreto waited outside to drive the getaway vehicle.

DiLoreto apparently heard sirens and drove away before his 16-year-old cohort came out of the bank. Police and rescue workers were responding to an accident involving an all-terrain vehicle across the street from the bank at the time of the robbery at 9:55 a.m., said Burnett County Sheriff Dean Roland.

Police arrested the 16-year-old suspect about 45 minutes after the robbery as he walked in a field near Danbury, which is across the St. Croix River and about 100 miles northeast of the Twin Cities.

The juvenile, who admitted to the robbery and to being with DiLoreto, is being held at a detention facility in Eau Claire, Wis., Roland said. Charges against him are pending.

Police arrested DiLoreto at his family's Minnetonka home on Saturday several hours after the incident.

DiLoreto graduated from Hopkins High School in June and had earned a basketball scholarship to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768