A 26-year-old woman admitted in federal court in Minneapolis that she was the lead-footed getaway driver in the last of three bank robberies pulled off by her love-struck cohort, who at the time was a fugitive sex offender from Wisconsin.

Erica L. Reeves, of Selah, Wash., pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping Eric A. Ebbers, 25, rob the Citizens Bank in Hutchinson, Minn., of $5,770 on July 17.

Ebbers, who has recently lived in southeastern Wisconsin, pleaded guilty in late September to holding up the Hutchinson bank, after which Reeves drove at speeds above 100 miles per hour.

Ebbers also admitted robbing the Alliance Bank in Lake City, Minn., on June 4 and the Key Bank in Gresham, Ore., on June 25. He came away with $8,100 in Lake City and $3,251 in Oregon.

According to court records, as Ebbers and Reeves fled from the Hutchinson holdup, a McLeod County sheriff's deputy tried to stop the vehicle, but the car accelerated. Authorities disabled it with a spiked "stop stick." Ebbers told Reeves he loved her and ran into a cornfield. Reeves was shown a surveillance photo and identified Ebbers as the robber. He was apprehended about 15 miles from the cornfield.

Ebbers told authorities he walked away from a halfway house for registered sex offenders in Racine, Wis., shortly before the bank robberies because his supervised release was about to be revoked and he didn't want to serve the remaining 18 months of his sentence in prison.

For their crimes, Reeves and Ebbers face a potential maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

PAUL WALSH