Royko's son pleads in attempted bank robbery

[March 12, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- The son of the late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko has entered a conditional guilty plea to attempted bank robbery.

Forty-five-year-old Robert Royko entered the plea Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen, who set June 5 for sentencing.

The judge hasn't allowed Royko to argue that he was so intoxicated he was incapable of forming a clear intention of robbing the bank. If an appeals court finds that such a defense should have been allowed, Royko can withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial.

Prosecutors calculate the maximum potential sentence at about 10 years, but Royko's defense attorney says it's less than half that.

Royko was arrested in April 2005 after allegedly demanding money in a Chicago bank.

[Associated Press]

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