Man pleads not guilty to robbing Swampscott Bank

SALEM – A Superior Court judge continued the $5,000 cash bail for a man who pleaded not guilty to robbing the Citizens Bank in Swampscott last year.Michael Ritson, 27, of 2 Third St., Medford was arraigned on charges of unarmed robbery, larceny from a building and buying and receiving a stolen motor vehicle.As recommended by both the prosecutor and defense, Judge David A. Lowy set the same bail as previously set in Lynn District Court and continued the case to Dec. 19 for a pretrial conference.In the meantime, Ritson remains held at the Middleton Jail in lieu of bail.Police say on the afternoon of Aug. 21, 2006, a man wearing jeans, a white hooded sweatshirt with the Adidas logo on the front and a white baseball cap walked into the Citizen Bank on Paradise Road in Vinnin Square, leaped over the counter and snatched cash from the tellers before fleeing the scene in a stolen gray 1993 Buick Century.An estimated $9,000 to $10,000 was reported stolen.A partial plate was jotted down by a witness and provided to police who learned the car had been stolen earlier from Haverhill.Police recovered a palm print from the counter, but the case went unresolved until Ritson was being held in a Suffolk Jail on an unrelated robbery.Authorities then apparently were able to match his print with the palm print recovered from the bank.A conviction on the armed robbery charge carries a potential life sentence in prison.Assistant District Attorney Michael P. Hickey is prosecuting the case.